Etymograph

English

caulk

Caulk comes from Late Latin calicāre ‘to fill in with limestone, caulk’, and goes back to calx.

  1. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEcalx‘limestone, chalk’
  2. Late Latin, derivedc. 200–600 CEcalicāre‘to fill in with limestone, caulk’
  3. Old Northern Frenchc. 842–1400cauquer
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1829caulk

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEcalx‘limestone, chalk’
  2. Late Latin, derivedc. 200–600 CEcalicāre‘to fill in with limestone, caulk’
  3. Old Northern Frenchc. 842–1400cauquer
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1829caulk

Earliest quotation: 1829, William Nugent Glascock, Sailors and Saints: Or Matrimonial Manœvres: “There was the goggle-eyed daughter a blowing the Grampus…”

Linked words

through Late Latin calx ‘limestone, chalk’

calcium, chalk, quilt, calculus, counterpoint, causeway, calcareous, recalcitrant, calcite, calzone, inculcate, 35 more

Today it means

noun Caulking.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Late Latin calx / caulk

Shirt and support for this word