"This Anglo-Saxon word to keep is generally used in s strict literal sense, and then always imports to preserve..."

    Thought this might be of interest, as I stumbled upon it and it sure caught my eye:

   "This Anglo-Saxon word to keep is generally used in s strict literal sense, and then always imports to preserve, and nothing else or more. It is used in divers metaphorical senses, which, from frequency, have the appearance, at first view, of being literal; but it always imports the idea of preservation or indefinite continuation, requested or commanded, it is never used as synonymous with making any thing." [The remainder of the quotation is of the speech itself, from another source] "Every child of three years old knows, when his mother tells him to keep any thing, that she means he is to take care of it. The very instances stated by the gentleman from Missouri serve to show that to keep does not mean to make, but to preserve or to continue indefinitely."--Senator Benjamin Watkins Leigh, U.S. Senate, Expunging Resolution, [April 4,] 1836 [Elliot's Debates, Vol. IV. Pg. 598-9]