chalk

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English chalk, also chalke and calk,^[2][1] inherited from Old English cealc (“plaster, cement, chalk; lime”),^[3][4][5][6] earlier calc,^[7][5] inherited from Proto-West Germanic *kalk,^[1] borrowed from Latin calx (“lime, limestone, small stone”),^{[4][5][8][9][10]} from Ancient Greek χάλιξ (khálix, “small stone, pebble”).^{[4][7][10][1]} Ayto thinks the Greek source probable,^[8] and Barnhart calls the Greek word of unknown origin;^[7] Etymonline notes that many trace it to an Indo-European root meaning to split or break up, but quotes Beekes: "There is no convincing etymology".^[4] The Latin word was borrowed early into West Germanic, and its cognates are Old Saxon calc, Middle Dutch calk, Dutch kalk, Old High German chalch and German Kalk, with Danish kalk, Swedish kalk and Icelandic kalk.^{[5][6][11][12]} It is a doublet of cauk.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Old English the word meant lime, plaster or cement:^[3][5] in the Old English Orosius the emperor Jovian, spending a cold night in a newly plastered house, is overcome by the fumes of the cealc when a fire is lit.^[3] Barnhart dates the form calc to about 700 and cealc to before 900.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In the other Germanic languages the word kept the Latin meaning, lime or limestone (German Kalk still means limestone), but in English it came to name the soft white limestone itself,^[8][4][12] taking over the meaning of Latin crēta (“chalk”), the source of craie and of crayon.^[12][13] Weekley explains the change by the chalk so conspicuous in the south of England.^[13][4] The compound chalkstone glosses the Latin word for lime about 1225,^[2][7] the spelling chalk appears in the early 14th century,^[4][7] and the OED's first record of the rock is from about 1440; the older sense "lime" lasted until 1572.^[5] Gower already set chalk against cheese in 1393, as two things alike in look but not in worth.^[5][13] Because chalk marks were used to keep the score in games and to record drinks taken on credit in taverns, the word gained many extended senses:^[4][5] a customer's credit (before 1529, in Skelton), a mark or point scored (1674), and the phrase by a long chalk, by far (1835),^[5][14] which according to Word Origins refers to a long line of tally marks on a board.^[14] In the dialects of Northumberland, Westmorland, Yorkshire and Lancashire chalk was a shopkeeper's or publican's credit, and in Lancashire a try at football.^[15] The verb, from the noun, is first recorded in 1571 as chalk out, to sketch or outline, then as to mix with chalk (1578), to write with chalk (1580) and to rub or mark with chalk (1592).^{[5][7][4][16]} To chalk a billiard cue is recorded from 1834,^[5] and the figurative chalk it up from 1903.^[4] Slang added a scar or scratch (1840) and, in American use, milk (1929).^[17]

Timeline

• Old English – lime, plaster (obsolete by 1572).^[5][3]
• c. 1225 – chalkstone, glossing the Latin word for lime.^[2]
• 1393 – chalk and cheese contrasted (Gower).^[5]
• c. 1440 – the soft white limestone.^[5]
• 1481 – a coloured chalk or crayon for drawing.^[5]
• a. 1529 – credit recorded with chalk marks (Skelton).^[5]
• 1571 – verb, chalk out, to outline.^[5][7]
• 1580 – verb, to write or draw with chalk.^[5][16]
• 1597 – verb, to record credit or a score.^[5]
• 1674 – a mark made with chalk; a point scored.^[5]
• 1811 – geology, a chalk stratum.^[5]
• 1834 – to chalk a billiard cue.^[5]
• 1835 – by a long chalk.^[5]
• 1903 – chalk it up.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A soft, white, fine-grained limestone made almost wholly of calcium carbonate from the remains of tiny marine organisms.
2. A stick of this or of a similar substance, often coloured, used for writing and drawing on a blackboard.
3. A mark or line made with chalk.
4. (billiards, snooker) A small cube of chalk for rubbing on the tip of a cue.
5. (chiefly British) A score or tally; formerly, credit recorded in chalk.
6. (geology) A stratum of chalk, especially that of the Upper Cretaceous in Britain and western Europe.
7. by a long chalk: by far, and not by a long chalk, not at all.
8. chalk and cheese: two things that are completely different.

Verb

1. To rub or mark with chalk, especially to put chalk on the tip of a billiard cue.
2. To write, draw or outline with chalk: She chalked the hopscotch squares on the pavement.
3. (British) To treat land with chalk as a fertilizer.
4. chalk up: to record a score or debt.
5. chalk out: to sketch or outline a plan.

Word family

• chalkiness
• chalky
• chalklike
• chalkboard
• chalkstone
• chalk line
• chalk talk
• French chalk

Related words

• calcium
• calx
• calculate
• causeway
• calcareous
• crayon

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ 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)
16. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
17. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com