Cut to the quip / quick

Posted by ESC on April 28, 2000

In Reply to: Cut to the quip / quick posted by joseph King on April 28, 2000

: Can anyone help I don't know the exact phrase. I think it refers to part of your fingernail.

Cut to the quick. "Historically, both the noun 'quick' and the adjective and adverb forms come from the same root, the Anglo-Saxon 'cwicu, meaning 'alive or living.'...The phrase 'You have cut me to the quick' is a holdover from the original meaning of the word. Literally, it means to cut through the skin to the living tissue; figuratively, 'You have hurt my feelings." From the Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins by William and Mary Morris.