Etymologically
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clay

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /kleɪ/[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English clai, cley, inherited from Old English clǣg (“stiff, sticky earth, clay”),[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *klaijaz,[2][4] which is also the source of Old Frisian klai, Old Saxon klei, Dutch klei and Old High German klīwa (“bran”) (German Kleie).[2][4][5] It is related to Old English clām (“mud, clay”) (see clammy),[2][3] and outside Germanic to Ancient Greek γλία (glía, “glue”) and γλοιός (gloiós, “sticky matter”) and Latin glūten (“glue”) (see glue),[2][3][4] from a PIE root meaning slime or glue.[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English clǣg, about 1000, in Ælfric's Glossary;[2][6] the compound cleyputh, clay pit, is about 1241, and clai is before 1325 in Cursor Mundi.[2]

Semantic evolution

In early use the toughness and stickiness of the substance seem to have been its main feature.[6] Loosely, earth, moist earth or mire, especially the earth over a grave, is from before 1300,[6] and earth as the material of the human body, after Genesis 2:7, and hence the body itself as opposed to the soul, also from before 1300.[6] To moisten one's clay, to drink, is humorous from 1708,[6] and feet of clay, a hidden weakness in someone admired, after Daniel 2:33, is from 1814.[6] The verb, to treat or cover with clay, is late Middle English.[7] In Scots and English dialect a clay-bigging was a hut built of clay.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 1000 – Old English clǣg, in Ælfric.[2][6]
  • c. 1241 – cleyputh, clay pit.[2]
  • before 1300 – the body as made of clay.[6]
  • 1708 – to moisten one's clay.[6]
  • 1814 – feet of clay.[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A fine-grained, firm earth that is plastic when wet and hardens when fired, used to make bricks and pottery.
  2. Moist, sticky earth; mud.
  3. The human body, as opposed to the soul.
  4. A material such as modelling clay used for shaping.

Verb

  1. To treat or cover with clay.

Word family

  • clayey
  • clayish
  • claylike
  • claybank
  • claypan
  • clayware
  • claymation

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ 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)