Quick

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quick is a family name, a trade name, and a word in the English language whose meaning has gradually shifted.

[edit] People commonly called Quick

• Richard Quick — a women's swimming team coach
• Mike Quick — a former American Football player
• Quick — one of the eponymous characters in Quick & Flupke, a comic book series by Hergé.
• Johnny Quick — two distinct DC Comics characters
• Harry Quick, Australian politician

[edit] Other things commonly known as Quick

• Quick, the newspaper, is a product of The Dallas Morning News in Texas and is distributed free Monday through Friday.
• QUICK screening is a method to detect endogenous protein-protein interactions with very high confidence

• Quick kick — a kick in American football and Canadian football
• Quick clay, also known as Leda Clay and Champlain Sea Clay in Canada, is a unique form of highly sensitive marine clay, with the tendency to change from a relatively stiff condition to a liquid mass when it is disturbed.
• Quicksand is a hydrocolloid gel consisting of fine granular matter (such as sand or silt), clay, and salt water.
• Quicksilver is a common name for the chemical element mercury, literally meaning "living silver" based on its appearance and its unusual liquidity at room temperature.
• Kwik cricket is a high-speed version of the game, aimed mainly at encouraging youngsters to take part.
• The Quickshot sighting scope is an accessory to the Nintendo Entertainment System (N.E.S) Zapper.
• Quick Draw McGraw is the name of a fictional cartoon antropomorphic Horse, created by Hanna-Barbera and the star of The Quick Draw McGraw Show
• Quickdraws are used by rock climbers to attach rope to bolt anchors or chocks. They allow the rope to run through freely.

Quick can be a trade name in countries where English is not the primary language

• Quick — a fast-food restaurant chain in France and Belgium
• USS Quick (DD-490) was a ship in the US Navy during World War II
• Quick (sportswear) is a Dutch trademark which produces sportswear
• Quick (automobile) was an American automobile manufactured from 1899 until 1900
• Quick (film) 1993 Teri Polo film

[edit] Changes in meaning of the word

By origin, and in early and many surviving uses, the word quick meant living, alive. It is common to Germanic languages, confer German keck, lively, Dutch kwik, and Danish kvik; confer also Danish kvaeg, cattle. The original root is seen in Sanskrit jiva; Latin vivus, living, alive; Greek bios, life.

In its original sense the chief uses are such as the quick and the dead, of the Apostles' Creed, a quickset hedge, i.e. consisting of slips of living privet, thorn (NB. In Northern Europe, quick-thorn refers to the hawthorn plant that is commonly used for hedging purposes) etc.

The quick can refer to tender parts of the flesh under hard skin or particularly under the nail.

The joke

"There are two types of pedestrians in Dublin, the quick and the dead"

puns on the two meanings of quick.

The phrase quick with child means pregnant and the quickening is the moment a pregnant mother first feels the child move.

From the sense of having full vigour, living or lively qualities or movements, the word got its chief current meaning of possessing rapidity or speed of movement, mental or physical. It is thus used in the names of things which are in a constant or easily aroused condition of movement, e.g. quicksand, loose water-logged sand, readily yielding to weight or pressure, and quicksilver, the common name of the metal mercury.

Some of the text on this page was adapted from a 1911 Encyclopedia (presumably in the public domain).