Etymologically
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clock

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /klɒk/, US /klɑːk/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English clokke, probably borrowed from Middle Dutch clocke (“clock, bell”),[2][3][4] or from Old North French cloque “bell”; both are from Medieval Latin clocca (“bell”),[2][3] probably from a Celtic source (compare Old Irish clocc, Welsh cloch) spread by Irish missionaries, unless the Celtic words are from Latin.[2][3] It is probably imitative in origin, of the sound of early iron handbells.[2][3] Hoad says it came with Flemish clockmakers brought in by Edward I.[5] It is related to cloak, from the same word for “bell”, and to French cloche.[6][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A timepiece that sounds the hours on a bell: 1371 in the OED, about 1370 in Barnhart.[7][3] It replaced Old English dægmæl.[2]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant a bell, later the striking mechanism of a watch, and then the instrument itself rather than the sound it made.[6] A dial such as a taximeter or milometer is from 1930,[7] and an electronic pulse generator in computing from 1947.[7] The verb, to time by a clock, is from 1883,[2][3] to clock in at work from 1914,[2] and the slang “to hit” from 1941, originally Australian, from slang clock “face” (1923).[2] To put the clock back is from 1862, and round-the-clock from 1943, at first of air raids.[2]

Timeline

  • 1371 – a striking timepiece.[7]
  • 1662 – clockwork.[3]
  • 1862 – put the clock back.[2]
  • 1883 – verb, to time.[2][3]
  • 1914 – clock in.[2]
  • 1941 – to hit.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. An instrument for measuring and showing the time, with a dial and hands or a digital display.
  2. A meter such as a speedometer or taximeter.
  3. (computing) A device that produces regular pulses to synchronize operations.
  4. The downy seed head of a dandelion.

Verb

  1. To measure the time or speed of something.
  2. To reach a time, speed or total.
  3. (slang) To look at or notice.
  4. (informal) To hit someone.

Word family

  • clocker
  • cloak
  • clockwise
  • clockwork
  • o'clock

Usage notes

A clock, an ornamental pattern on the side of a sock or stocking, is from 1530.[7] Etymonline thinks it probably the same word, from a bell-shaped ornament, while SOED gives it as of unknown origin.[2][8] A dialect clock “beetle” (before 1550) and clock “to cluck”, from Old English cloccian, are different words.[7][8][4]

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 j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press