different between kex vs hex

English

Alternative forms

• kix

Etymology

From Middle English kex. Origin unknown; but compare Welsh cecys (“hollow stalks”) and Welsh cegid (“hemlock”), apparently from the same root as Latin cic?ta (“hemlock”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /k?ks/

Noun

kex (plural kexes)

1. (obsolete or dialectal) The dried stem of certain large herbaceous plants.
2. (obsolete, botany) A plant having such a stem; a weed, a kecksy.
3. (rare) A dry husk or covering.
   • 1972, Vladimir Nabokov, Transparent Things, McGraw-Hill 1972, pp. 100-101:

     On the bedside table a new package of cigarettes and a traveling clock had for neighbor a nicely wrapped box containing the green figurine of a girl skier which shone through the double kix.

Icelandic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /c??ks/, /c??xs/

Noun

kex n (genitive singular kex, nominative plural kex)

1. cookie, cracker, (UK) biscuit

Declension

Derived terms

Middle English

Alternative forms

• kixe, kyx, kysk

Etymology

Unknown.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?ks/, /kiks/

Noun

kex (plural kexis)

1. Any dried stem of a plant with a hollow interior.
2. (rare) A plant having a hollow stem; a member of the family Umbelliferae.

Descendants

• English: kex, kix
• Scots: kex

References

• “kex(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-10-12.

Swedish

Alternative forms

• käx (dated)

Etymology

From English cakes, plural of cake, from Middle English cake, from Old Norse kaka (whence also kaka), from Proto-Germanic *kak?, from Proto-Indo-European *gog. The reason why the word is lent in the plural is because it is easier to apply the Swedish declension patterns with cakes than with cake. Compare the similar loans räls and muffins. Compare Danish kiks (similarly borrowed from English).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Svealand, Norrland) /k?ks/, (Götaland) /??ks/

Noun

kex n

1. cookie, cracker, (UK) biscuit

Declension

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /h?ks/
• Rhymes: -?ks

Etymology 1

First attested about 1830, from Pennsylvania German hexe (“to practice witchcraft”), from German hexen (compare Hexe (“witch”)). The noun appeared later, in the 1850s. Cognate to Norwegian Bokmål heks (“witch”) and Dutch heks (“witch”), Dutch beheksen (“to bewitch”), Old English hægtesse (“witch, hag”). Related to hag.

Verb

hex (third-person singular simple present hexes, present participle hexing, simple past and past participle hexed)

1. (transitive) To cast a spell on (specifically an evil spell), to bewitch.

Translations

Noun

hex (plural hexes)

1. An evil spell or curse.
2. A witch.
3. (rare) A spell (now rare but still found in compounds such as hex sign and hexcraft).

Derived terms

• hexcraft

Translations

Etymology 2

Short for hexadecimal.

Noun

hex (uncountable)

1. (computing, informal) Clipping of hexadecimal.

Translations

Etymology 3

Short for hexagon.

Noun

hex (plural hexes)

1. A hexagonal space on a game board.
2. (climbing) a hexagon-shaped item of rock climbing equipment intended to be wedged into a crack or other opening in the rock.

Derived terms

• megahex

See also

• (climbing): nut

References

Anagrams

• exh