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chock

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Etymology and origin of the English word chock

Pronunciation

  • UK: /tʃɒk/[1]
  • US: /t͡ʃɑk/[1]

chock1 wedge, block

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1582 before 1582, W. Bourne, Inuentions or Deuises
Borrowed from
Middle French choque

Etymology

The word for a wedge or block is apparently borrowed from Middle French choque (“log, block”), a northern form also spelled chouque,[2][3][4] apparently first a variant of Old French soche or souche (“log, block of wood”), recorded in the 11th century in Rashi as çoce, now French souche (“stump”).[2][4] Dictionary.com takes it through Anglo-French choque, comparing a Picard form meaning a big log.[5] The further origin is uncertain and disputed; the OED compares Italian ciocco (“log, block of wood”).[2][6][3] Etymonline, Barnhart, Partridge and Klein derive the Old French word from Gaulish *tsukka (“tree trunk, stump”),[7][8][9][10] which Barnhart and Partridge connect with Old High German stoc (“stump”) and so with stock;[8][9] the American Heritage Dictionary calls the Gaulish word itself Germanic.[11] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Collins call the origin unknown or uncertain.[12][13] The verb, recorded from before 1661, is formed from the noun.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A block or log of wood; a stump: before 1582, in W. Bourne's Inuentions or Deuises.[2] The OED notes that chokkes in a naval account of 1347–50 probably reflects Anglo-Norman rather than Middle English use.[2] Barnhart's first record is chuck, a lumpy piece of wood, in a glossary of country words of 1674,[8] and Etymonline dates the word to the 1670s.[7]

Semantic evolution

In 1665 it was a clamp on a lathe, a sense later taken over by chuck,[2] and on ships a fitting through which a rope is led.[2][12] Shipbuilders used it from 1711 for a block filling a gap between timbers.[2] From 1769, in Falconer's marine dictionary, it was a wedge that kept an object from moving, at first on board ship.[2][12] Later uses were a cradle for a boat (1796), a block against a wheel (1841), a roof support in a mine (1853) and a stone wedged in a cleft for climbers (1894), now also a metal wedge.[2] In the Second World War chocks away was the call of Royal Air Force pilots for the blocks to be pulled from the wheels.[2][14] The verb meant at first to fit tightly into something (before 1661 to 1786), then to secure with chocks (1726).[2] The adverb, "as close as possible", is recorded from 1768, chiefly at sea;[2] the OED derives it from the noun or verb,[2] but Etymonline and the Shorter Oxford from chock-full.[7][4] In northern English dialects a chock was a small wedge or a block on which turners laid their tools.[15]

Timeline

  • before 1582 – a block of wood, a log or stump.[2]
  • before 1661 – verb, to fit tightly into something (obsolete by 1786).[2]
  • 1665 – a fitting on a ship through which a rope is led; also a clamp on a lathe (obsolete).[2]
  • 1711 – a block filling a gap between a wooden ship's timbers.[2]
  • 1726 – verb, to fit or wedge with chocks.[2]
  • 1768 – adverb, as closely as possible.[2]
  • 1769 – a block or wedge that keeps something from moving.[2][12]
  • 1796 – a cradle supporting a boat.[2]
  • 1841 – a block placed against a wheel.[2]
  • 1894 – in climbing, a wedged stone, later a metal wedge.[2]
  • 1941 – chocks away, the pilots' call to remove the wheel chocks.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A wedge or block placed against a wheel, cask or boat to keep it from moving: The ground crew pulled the chocks from the wheels.[12][13][2]
  2. (nautical) A metal fitting with curved arms or a ring through which a mooring line or hawser passes; a fairlead.[12][13][2]
  3. (nautical) A cradle that supports a boat or barrel.[13][2]
  4. (mountaineering) A wedge or stone placed in a crack as an anchor; a nut.[13][2]

Verb

  1. To secure, stop or fit something with chocks.[12][13][2]
  2. To support a boat on chocks.[12][13][2]
  3. (British) To cram full, usually with up: a shed chocked up with old furniture.[13][12]

Adverb

  1. As closely or completely as possible: The crates were pushed chock against the bulkhead.[12][13][2]

Word family

  • chockstone
  • chock-a-block

chock2 hollow knocking sound

Confidence
Established
Formation
Onomatopoeia
First attested
1853 Western Literary Messenger

Etymology

The word for a short hollow sound is imitative.[2][12][4] For the doubled chick-chock of its first record the OED compares tick-tock.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

An interjection imitating a short hollow sound, as of chopping or of something heavy striking a hard surface: 1853, in the Western Literary Messenger.[2]

Semantic evolution

The verb, to make such a sound, followed in 1874, and the noun in 1877.[2] The Shorter Oxford dates the noun to the early 20th century.[4]

Timeline

  • 1853 – interjection, imitating a short hollow sound.[2]
  • 1874 – verb, to make such a sound.[2]
  • 1877 – noun, a short hollow sound.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A short, hollow sound, as of wooden blocks or balls striking together.[12][2][4]

Verb

  1. To make such a sound.[2]

Usage notes

Chock-full is first recorded about 1440 as chokkefulle and chekefull, probably from choke and full, "full to the point of choking", and only later associated with chock, the block.[2][12][3][16] Weekley instead took its first part from a Middle English word for the jaw.[17] Chock-a-block was first a sailors' phrase for two blocks of a tackle drawn so close that they touch, probably influenced by chock-full,[14][4] and the adjective chock, "crammed full", recorded from about 1850, is shortened from one of the two.[2] In some English dialects chock was also a game of pitching marbles into a hole and a rut in a road, a variant of chuck.[2][15]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  9. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  14. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ 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)
  16. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  17. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Chock.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/chock. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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