clock

clock · noun, verb¹

1. Proto-Celtic*klokkosder.?
2. Early Medieval Latinclocca
3. Old Northern Frenchcloque
4. Old Dutch*klokka
5. Middle Dutchclocke
6. Middle Englishclokke
7. English todayclock

First use appears c. 1370. From Middle English clokke, clok, cloke (“clock”), from Middle Dutch clocke (“bell, clock”), from Old Dutch *klokka, from Medieval Latin clocca (“bell, clock, cloak”), probably of Celtic origin, from Proto-Celtic *klokkos (“bell”) (compare Welsh cloch (“bell”), Old Irish cloc (“bell, clock”)), either onomatopoeic or from Proto-Indo-European *klek- (“to laugh, cackle”) (compare Proto-Germanic *hlahjaną (“to laugh”)). Cognate with Old English clucge (“bell”), Saterland Frisian Klokke (“bell, clock”), Dutch klok (“clock, bell”), Low German Klock (“bell, clock”), German Glocke (“bell”), Danish and Norwegian klokke (“clock, bell”), Faroese klokka (“clock, bell”), Icelandic klukka (“clock, bell”), Swedish klocka (“clock, bell”), Asturian llueca (“cowbell”), Galician and Portuguese choca (“cowbell”), Doublet of cloak and cloche. "Seed head of a dandelion" sense from a children's game in which one supposedly tells the time by counting the number of puffs taken to blow away all the seeds, each puff representing one hour of the day.

clock · noun, verb²

Uncertain; designs may have originally been bell-shaped and thus related to Etymology 1, above.

clock · verb³

1. Old English · inherited fromcloccian
2. Middle English · inherited fromclokken
3. English todayclock

From Middle English clokken, from Old English cloccian, ultimately imitative; compare Dutch klokken, English cluck.

Words from the same roots