different between lithe vs quick

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /la?ð/
• Rhymes: -a?ð

Etymology 1

From Middle English lithen, from Old English l?þan (“to go, travel, sail, be bereft of”), from Proto-Germanic *l?þan? (“to go, leave, suffer”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyt- (“to go, depart, die”). Cognate with North Frisian lyen, lije (“to suffer”), Dutch lijden (“to suffer, dree, abide”), German leiden (“to suffer, brook, permit”). See also lode, lead.

Verb

lithe (third-person singular simple present lithes, present participle lithing, simple past lithed or lode, past participle lithed or lidden)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To go.

Etymology 2

From Middle English lithe, from Old English l?þe (“gentle, mild”), from Proto-West Germanic *linþ(?), from Proto-Germanic *linþaz, from Proto-Indo-European *lentos. Akin to Saterland Frisian lied (“thin, skinny, gaunt”), Danish and archaic German lind (“mild”). Not attested in Gothic. Some sources also list Latin lenis (“soft”) and/or Latin lentus (“supple”) as possible cognates.

Adjective

lithe (comparative lither, superlative lithest)

1. (obsolete) Mild; calm.

   Synonyms: clement, gentle, mellow

2. Slim but not skinny.

   Synonyms: lithesome, lissome, swack; see also Thesaurus:slender

   • She was frankly disappointed. For some reason she had thought to discover a burglar of one or another accepted type—either a dashing cracksman in full-blown evening dress, lithe, polished, pantherish, or a common yegg, a red-eyed, unshaven burly brute in the rags and tatters of a tramp.
3. Capable of being easily bent; flexible.

   Synonyms: pliant, flexible, limber; see also Thesaurus:flexible

   • 1861, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Elsie Venner, page 125

     … she danced with a kind of passionate fierceness, her lithe body undulating with flexuous grace …

4. Adaptable.

Derived terms

• litheness

Related terms

• -inda
• lind
• linden
• Linda

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English lithen, from Old English l?þian, l?þi?ian (“to soften, calm, mitigate, assuage, appease, be mild”), from Proto-Germanic *linþijan? (“to soften”), from Proto-Indo-European *lento- (“bendsome, resilient”). Cognate with German lindern (“to alleviate, ease, relieve”).

Verb

lithe

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To become calm.
2. (transitive, obsolete) To make soft or mild; soften; alleviate; mitigate; lessen; smooth; palliate.
   • a. 1652, Thomas Adams, Physic from Heaven

     England.. hath now suppled, lithed and stretched their throats.

   • 1642, Daniel Rogers, Naaman the Syrian: His Disease and Cure

     Give me also faith, Lord,.. to lithe, to form, and to accommodate my spirit and members.

Etymology 4

From Middle English lithen, from Old Norse hlýða (“to listen”), from Proto-Germanic *hliuþijan? (“to listen”), from Proto-Indo-European *?lewe- (“to hear”). Cognate with Danish lytte (“to listen”). Related to Old English hl?oþor (“noise, sound, voice, song, hearing”), Old English hl?d (“loud, noisy, sounding, sonorous”). More at loud.

Alternative forms

• lythe

Verb

lithe (third-person singular simple present lithes, present participle lithing, simple past and past participle lithed)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To attend; listen, hearken.
2. (transitive) To listen to, hearken to.

Etymology 5

Origin uncertain; perhaps an alteration of lewth.

Noun

lithe (plural lithes)

1. (Scotland) Shelter.
   • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song:

     So Cospatric got him the Pict folk to build a strong castle there in the lithe of the hills, with the Grampians dark and bleak behind it, and he had the Den drained and he married a Pict lady and got on her bairns and he lived there till he died.

Anagrams

• Leith, Theil, Thiel, lieth

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

lithe (plural lithes)

1. Alternative form of light

Etymology 2

Noun

lithe

1. Alternative form of lyth

English

Alternative forms

• kwik (eye dialect)

Etymology

From Middle English quik, quic, from Old English cwic (“alive”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwik(k)w, from Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *g?ih?wós (“alive”), from *g?eyh?- (“to live”), *g?eyh?w- (“to live”).

Cognate with Dutch kwik, kwiek, German keck, Swedish kvick; and (from Indo-European) with Ancient Greek ???? (bíos, “life”), Latin vivus, Lithuanian gývas (“alive”), Latvian dz?vs (“alive”), Russian ?????? (živój), Welsh byw (“alive”), Irish beo (“alive”), biathaigh (“feed”), Northern Kurdish jîn (“to live”), jiyan (“life”), giyan (“soul”), can (“soul”), Sanskrit ??? (j?va, “living”), Albanian nxit (“to urge, stimulate”). Doublet of jiva.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kw?k/, [k?w??k]
• Rhymes: -?k

Adjective

quick (comparative quicker, superlative quickest)

1. Moving with speed, rapidity or swiftness, or capable of doing so; rapid; fast.

2. Occurring in a short time; happening or done rapidly.

3. Lively, fast-thinking, witty, intelligent.

4. Mentally agile, alert, perceptive.

5. Of temper: easily aroused to anger; quick-tempered.
   • 1549, Hugh Latimer, The Sixth Sermon Preached Before King Edward, April 6 1549

     The bishop was somewhat quick with them, and signified that he was much offended.

6. (archaic) Alive, living.
   • 1633, George Herbert, The Temple

     Man is no star, but a quick coal / Of mortal fire.

   • 1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night, X

     The inmost oratory of my soul,

     Wherein thou ever dwellest quick or dead,

     Is black with grief eternal for thy sake.

7. (now rare, archaic) Pregnant, especially at the stage where the foetus's movements can be felt; figuratively, alive with some emotion or feeling.
   • Section 316, Penal Code (Cap. 224, 2008 Ed.) (Singapore)

     Whoever does any act under such circumstances that if he thereby caused death he would be guilty of culpable homicide, and does by such act cause the death of a quick unborn child, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 10 years, and shall also be liable to fine.

   • 2012, Jerry White, London in the Eighteenth Century, Bodley Head 2017, p. 385:

     When sentenced she sought to avoid hanging by declaring herself with child – ironically, given her favourite deception – but a ‘jury of Matrons’ found her not quick.

8. Of water: flowing.
9. Burning, flammable, fiery.
10. Fresh; bracing; sharp; keen.
11. (mining, of a vein of ore) productive; not "dead" or barren

Synonyms

• (moving with speed): fast, speedy, rapid, swift; see also Thesaurus:speedy
• (occurring in a short time): brief, momentary, short-lived; see also Thesaurus:ephemeral
• (fast-thinking): bright, droll, keen; see also Thesaurus:witty or Thesaurus:intelligent
• (easily aroused to anger): hotheaded, rattish, short-tempered, snippish, snippy
• (alive, living): extant, live, vital; see also Thesaurus:alive
• (pregnant): expecting, gravid, with child; see also Thesaurus:pregnant
• (flowing): fluent, fluminous; see also Thesaurus:flowing

Antonyms

• (moving with speed): slow
• (alive): dead

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Adverb

quick (comparative quicker, superlative quickest)

1. Quickly, in a quick manner.

   • If we consider how very quick the actions of the mind are performed.

Derived terms

• right quick

Translations

Noun

quick (plural quicks)

1. Raw or sensitive flesh, especially that underneath finger and toe nails.
2. Plants used in making a quickset hedge
   • 1641, John Evelyn, diary entry September 1641

     The works […] are curiously hedged with quick.

3. The life; the mortal point; a vital part; a part susceptible to serious injury or keen feeling.
   • 1550, Hugh Latimer, Sermon Preached at Stamford, 9 October 1550

     This test nippeth, […] this toucheth the quick.

   • How feebly and unlike themselves they reason when they come to the quick of the difference!

4. Quitchgrass.
5. (cricket) A fast bowler.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

quick (third-person singular simple present quicks, present participle quicking, simple past and past participle quicked)

1. (transitive) To amalgamate surfaces prior to gilding or silvering by dipping them into a solution of mercury in nitric acid.
2. (transitive, archaic, poetic) To quicken.
   • 1917', Thomas Hardy, At the Word 'Farewell

     I rose as if quicked by a spur I was bound to obey.

References

• quick in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• quick in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• quick at OneLook Dictionary Search

French

Etymology

From English.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kwik/
• Rhymes: -ik

Noun

quick m (plural quicks)

1. quick waltz

See also

• slow

German

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle Low German quick, from Old Saxon quik, from Proto-West Germanic *kwik(k)w, from Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz; also a Central Franconian form. Doublet of keck, which see for more.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kv?k/, [k??k]

Adjective

quick (comparative quicker, superlative am quicksten)

1. (rather rare, dated) lively

Usage notes

• Much more common than the simplex is the pleonastic compound quicklebendig.

Declension

Derived terms

Related terms

Further reading

• “quick” in Duden online
• “quick” in Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, 16 vols., Leipzig 1854–1961.