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Was surprised today when I read "pinked him in the quick". I presumed it should be "pinned". This lead me to do some search and find some interesting information about the #word #quick.
#alive was the original meaning of "quick." The flesh under the nail is called quick because the nail, the hard part, is dead, but the flesh is "alive."
Some other words still in use today which carry the original meaning of quick include #quicklime, literally "living lime", #quicksand "living sand." "quicksilver", comes from the fact that mercury flows, as though it were alive.
"The quick and the dead" did not refer to gunslingers in the Old American West, but instead refers to "the living and the dead."