clay
pronunciation
How to pronounce clay in British English:
UK [kleɪ]
How to pronounce clay in American English:
US [kleɪ]
-
- Noun:
- a very fine-grained soil that is plastic when moist but hard when fired
- water soaked soil; soft wet earth
- the dead body of a human being
Word Origin
- clay
- clay: [OE] Clay is named from its consistency – its stickiness, its squidginess, its capacity for being smeared. Its ultimate source is the Indo- European base *gloi-, *glei-, *gli-, from which English also gets glue and gluten. From it was descended the Germanic base *klai-, on which was formed West Germanic *klaijō-. This passed into Old English as clæg – hence modern English clay. (Clammy comes from the same Germanic source, and clag, from which we get claggy ‘muddy’, is essentially the same word as clay, although it reached English via a Scandinavian route.)=> clammy, clean
- clay (n.)
- Old English clæg "stiff, sticky earth; clay," from Proto-Germanic *klaijaz (cognates: Old High German kliwa "bran," German Kleie, Old Frisian klai "clay," Old Saxon klei, Middle Dutch clei, Danish klæg "clay;" also Old English clæman, Old Norse kleima, Old High German kleiman "to cover with clay"), from PIE root *glei- "clay" (cognates: Greek gloios "sticky matter;" Latin gluten "glue;" Old Church Slavonic glina "clay," glenu "slime, mucus;" Old Irish glenim "I cleave, adhere"). in Scripture, the stuff from which the body of the first man was formed; hence "human body" (especially when dead). Clay pigeon is from 1888. Feet of clay "fundamental weakness" is from Dan. ii:33.
Example
- 1. This season , we have found mostly clay floors .
- 2. The fill made up of basket loads of different colored clay .
- 3. This time , I moulded the clay on to the skull .
- 4. Clay wanted a special session of the new congress .
- 5. Aspdin heated a concoction of finely ground limestone and clay in his kitchen .