Etymologically
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ark

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English arke, inherited from Old English earc, also arc, ærc and erc,[2][3][4][5] inherited from Proto-Germanic *arkō,[6] from Latin arca (“chest, box, coffer”), the word used in the Vulgate.[2][7][8] The Latin noun was borrowed early into all the Germanic languages, giving Old High German arahha (modern Arche), ǫrk, 𐌰𐍂𐌺𐌰 (arka) and erke;[4][3][5][9] Weekley calls it an early pre-Christian loan.[10] The Latin word is related to arceō (“to hold in, keep off”),[4][10][11] the source of arcane,[11][2] and Merriam-Webster traces it to Proto-Indo-European *h₂erḱ- (“to hold, contain”), comparing Ancient Greek ἀρκέω (arkéō, “to ward off”).[6] Old Church Slavonic рака (raka, “burial cave”) was borrowed from Germanic.[9] The French form arche also occurs in Middle English for Noah's ark.[10][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English: Barnhart's earliest example is in the Vespasian Psalter, before 830, for the Ark of the Covenant,[4][3] and Noah's ark is found in the Lindisfarne Gospels.[3] Old English also used the word for a chest, box or coffin.[3][9]

Semantic evolution

The underlying idea, according to Ayto, is a space that is shut in and guarded.[11] The general sense "box, coffer" was the original one,[11][12] and survives in northern dialects for a large wooden chest or bin for meal, flour or clothes;[3][13] Trench quoted meal-ark from Lancashire,[14] and Weekley notes the surname Arkwright, a maker of such chests.[10] In Middle English the word could also mean the breast as the seat of feeling.[2] Since the ark that saved Noah could be seen as a floating box,[11] the word was used from 1477 for a ship or boat in general,[3][2] and in the 19th-century United States for a large flat-bottomed riverboat carrying produce to market.[3][2] From Noah's ark came the sense "place of refuge" in the 17th century,[2] and Milton used it in 1642 for something that protects a precious thing.[3] In dialect the ark or Noah's ark was also a formation of clouds thought to foretell rain or a thaw.[13] The Holy Ark is the cabinet in a synagogue that holds the Torah scrolls.[15][12]

Timeline

  • before 830 – erc, the Ark of the Covenant.[4]
  • Old English – a chest or box, and Noah's ark.[3]
  • c. 1175 – figuratively, a casket or treasury.[3]
  • 1477 – a ship or boat in general.[3]
  • 1642 – something that protects a precious possession.[3]
  • 1644 – verb, to shut up in an ark (now obsolete).[3]
  • 19th century – (US) a flat-bottomed riverboat.[2][3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The large boat in which, according to Genesis, Noah, his family and pairs of every animal were saved from the Flood.
  2. The Ark of the Covenant, the wooden chest that held the tablets of the law in ancient Israel.
  3. (Judaism) The cabinet in a synagogue in which the Torah scrolls are kept.
  4. A place or thing that gives shelter or protection.
  5. (dialect) A chest, box or bin, especially for storing meal or flour.
  6. (informal) out of the ark: very old or old-fashioned: Her ideas about computers are straight out of the ark.

Word family

  • arkwright
  • Ark of the Covenant
  • Noah's ark
  • ark shell

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  11. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  12. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  14. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
  15. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins