Etymology

Cognates include Lithuanian kẽkšis, kẽkšė ‎(“hook; stilt; pole”). There are similar words in neighboring non-Baltic languages: Livonian boathook, Estonian dialectal keks, käks, köks ‎(“hook; harpoon”), Finnish keksi ‎(“hook”), Norwegian kjeks, Swedish käx ‎(“small boathook”), which led many researchers to conclude that the Latvian term was borrowed. But it is also possible that the other languages borrowed from Baltic; in which case ķeksis might continue Proto-Indo-European *kek- ‎(“to curve, bend”) with an additional -s (compare Sanskrit कक्षा ‎(kákṣā, “armpit, nook, corner”)); compare Latvian dialectal terms ḳekains ‎(“hooked”), ḳeks, ḳeḳa ‎(“crutches”), ḳeḳis ‎(“person with crooked teeth”).^[1]