kex

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 cicūta (“hemlock”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kɛks/

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /cʰɛks/, /cʰɛxs/

Noun

kex n (genitive singular kex, nominative plural kex)

1. cookie, cracker, (UK) biscuit

Alternative forms

• käx (dated)

Etymology

From English cakes, from Middle English cake, from Old Norse kaka, from Proto-Germanic *kakǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *gog

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɛks/, /ɕɛks/

Noun

kex n

1. cookie, cracker, (UK) biscuit