- The Quick and the Dead
The Quick and the Dead is an English phrase and popular title for novels, films and other popular culture entities.
The application of the phrase "the quick and the dead" to the common subject of
gunfighting was due to a misunderstanding of its original meaning in theKing James Version of theNew Testament (published 1611), where the phrase is used in 1 Peter 4:5: "...who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead."In the English of the era, "quick" meant "living" or "alive," being derived from the
Proto-Germanic *"kwikwaz", which in turn was from the Proto-Indo-European base *"gwiwo"- "to live" (from which also came theLatin "vivere" and later the Italian and Spanish "viva"). Its English meaning in later centuries shifted to "fast," "rapid," "moving, or able to move, with speed," and finally came to be used in the title of this and other works of literature.
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