chalk
pronunciation
How to pronounce chalk in British English:
UK 
How to pronounce chalk in American English:
US
Word Origin
- chalk
- chalk: [OE] Latin calx meant broadly ‘lime, limestone’ (it probably came from Greek khálix ‘pebble’). This was borrowed in early times into the Germanic languages, and in most of them it retains this meaning (German kalk, for instance, means ‘limestone’). In English, however, it fairly soon came to be applied to a particular soft white form of limestone, namely chalk (the Old English word was cealc). The Latin word is also the source of English calculate, calcium, and causeway.=> calcium, calculate, causeway
- chalk (n.)
- Old English cealc "chalk, lime, plaster; pebble," a West Germanic borrowing from Latin calx (2) "limestone, lime (crushed limestone), small stone," from Greek khalix "small pebble," which many trace to a PIE root for "split, break up." In most Germanic languages still with the "limestone" sense, but in English transferred to the opaque, white, soft limestone found abundantly in the south of the island. Modern spelling is from early 14c. The Latin word for "chalk" was creta, which also is of unknown origin.
- chalk (v.)
- 1570s, "to mix with chalk;" 1590s as "to mark with chalk," from chalk (n.). Related: Chalked; chalking. Old English had cealcian "to whiten." Certain chalk marks on shipped objects meant "admitted" or "shipped free," hence some figurative senses. Chalk boards also were commonly used in keeping credit, score, etc., hence figurative use of chalk it up (1903).
Example
- 1. Chalk marks began to appear on the brown linoleum .
- 2. It is these , fossilised , that form rocks such as chalk andlimestone .
- 3. Plus , tutorials are a nice excuse to break away from the dull side of a designer 's life to have fun , yet you can still chalk up a tutorial as education .
- 4. I obliterate the word with chalk .
- 5. Driving , lambright thought the moon looked like a fingerprint of chalk .