clog

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English clogge (“a lump of wood, block”),^[2][3][4] of unknown or uncertain origin.^{[5][2][6][7][8][9]} The OED suggests that it may be an alteration of log by association with club, or an expressive formation suggested by these and similar words such as clod;^[5] Partridge also compares clod.^[10] Etymonline, Klein and Skeat compare Norwegian klugu (“knotty log of wood”).^[2][11][12] According to the OED, association with clag, to bedaub or make sticky, is largely later;^[5] Weekley also notes it.^[13] The English word was borrowed into Anglo-Norman for a wooden overshoe, as in a parliamentary roll of 1416.^[5] The verb is formed from the noun.^{[5][2][14][4]}

Earliest recorded meaning

A block or lump, especially a piece of wood: before 1350, in a Middle English lyric, later chiefly for a block attached to a key to keep it from being lost.^[5] Barnhart dates the noun to before 1325 and Etymonline to the early 14th century.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Most later senses grow from the block of wood.^[5] A thick piece of a trunk or root, a log, is recorded from 1361 and survives in Scottish and English dialect.^[5][4][15] The wooden-soled overshoe appears in 1390,^[5] though Barnhart finds the shoe sense already in the surname Clogmaker in 1367.^[3] A shoe carved from a single piece of wood followed in 1607, the familiar wooden-soled shoe with a leather upper in 1688, and dances performed in clogs in 1873.^[5] Etymonline notes that clogs served as overshoes until rubbers came in around 1840 and returned to fashion around 1970.^[2] The block tied to the leg or neck of an animal or a prisoner to stop it straying (before 1398, in Trevisa) led to the figurative "anything that hinders, an encumbrance", from before 1425.^[5][3] The verb began as "to fasten a clog to" (before 1398) and spread to encumbering with sticky matter (1526), burdening (1529) and blocking a channel or passage (1586);^[5][4] the intransitive "to become blocked" is from 1833 in the OED,^[5] and Etymonline gives 1755 for "become choked up".^[2] The OED thinks the sticky senses were influenced by clag and that the senses of surfeiting were confused with cloy.^[5] In Staffordshire a clog was also a notched wooden almanac (1686).^[5][15]

Timeline

• before 1350 – a block or lump, especially of wood.^[5]
• 1361 – a log or thick piece of wood.^[5]
• 1390 – a wooden-soled overshoe.^[5]
• before 1398 – a heavy block fastened to an animal's leg; verb, to fasten such a block to.^[5][3]
• before 1425 – figurative, a hindrance, an encumbrance.^[5]
• 1526 – verb, to encumber with sticky matter.^[5]
• 1586 – verb, to block a channel or passage.^[5]
• 1607 – a shoe made from a single piece of wood.^[5]
• 1686 – a notched wooden calendar.^[5]
• 1688 – a shoe with a thick wooden sole and a leather upper.^[5]
• 1833 – verb, intransitive, to become blocked.^[5]
• 1873 – a dance performed in clogs.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A shoe with a thick wooden sole, or one carved entirely from wood: She danced in clogs at the festival.^[9][5]
2. Something that hinders movement or action; an encumbrance.^[9][4][5]
3. A mass of material that blocks a pipe or passage; a blockage.^[4]
4. A heavy block fastened to the leg of a person or animal to hinder movement.^[9][4][5]
5. (dialect) A short thick piece of wood; a log.^[4][5][15]

Verb

1. To block or become blocked with thick or sticky matter: Leaves had clogged the gutter.^[9][4][5]
2. To hinder or impede; to encumber.^[9][4][5]
3. To fasten a clog to an animal.^[9][5]
4. To stick together in a mass.^[9][5]

Word family

• clogger
• cloggily
• clogginess
• cloggy
• unclog
• clog dance

Related words

• log
• clod
• clag
• cloy

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c 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)