Cheeked

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. A term describing someone having or characterized by the presence of pronounced or prominent cheeks
2. indicating a specific quality or feature of cheekbones or facial structure
3. often used to convey an aspect of beauty or facial aesthetics

Etymology: "Cheeked" is the past tense and past participle of "cheek," so the adjective inherits its history from the noun. That noun reaches back to Old English "ċēce," meaning "cheek" or "jaw," and the two senses were never fully separate: the same body part was the bone and muscle of the lower face as well as the soft flesh over it. Old English speakers likely used the word for the jaw first, and the sense of the fleshy face came later. The word also has relatives across the North Sea. Dutch "kaak" means both "jaw" and "cheek," Swedish "käke" means "jaw," and Old Norse "kók" referred to the mouth or throat. These cognates point to a shared Germanic root, *kēkǭ, which may connect to a Proto-Indo-European verb meaning "to chew," a link that would make the jaw the original sense of the word and the cheek a secondary extension.