clinker-built

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*gleh₁y-“to glue, stick; to smear”
2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*klangijaną“to make cling or stick”
3. Old English · inherited fromclenċan“to clinch, hold fast”
4. Middle English · inherited fromclinken
5. English todayclinker-built

From clinker + built. Clinker is derived from clink (“to clench or fasten with nails or rivets”) + -er (suffix attached to verbs forming agent nouns indicating persons or things that do actions indicated by the verbs), and clink is a northern English variant of clench (“to secure (something) with bolts, nails, etc.; (specifically) to bend the point of a nail after it has been hammered through something so that the nail cannot be removed; to clinch”), from Middle English clinken, clenchen (“to fasten, specifically with nails or rivets; to enclose; to lock up; to clench (the fingers)”) [and other forms], from Old English clenċan (“to clinch, hold fast”), a variant of clenġan (“to adhere; to remain”), from Proto-Germanic *klangijaną (“to make cling or stick”), the causative of *klinganą (“to adhere to, cling to”), from Proto-Indo-European *gleh₁y- (“to glue, stick; to smear”).

Words from the same roots