Etymograph

English

clock

Clock comes from Middle Dutch clocke ‘bell, clock’, and goes back to Medieval Latin clocca.

  1. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500clocca1‘bell’
  2. Old Dutchc. 500–1150*klokka1reconstructed
  3. Middle Dutchc. 1150–1500clocke1‘bell’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500clokke1
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1850clock1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English clock
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1850, [Alfred, Canto II: “The seasons bring the flower again, ⁠And bring the…”.

Lineage

  1. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500cloccaWiktionary, English clock‘bell’
  2. Old Dutchc. 500–1150*klokkaWiktionary, English clockreconstructed
  3. Middle Dutchc. 1150–1500clockeWiktionary, English clock‘bell’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500clokkeWiktionary, English clock
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1850clockWiktionary, English clock. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1850, [Alfred, Canto II: “The seasons bring the flower again, ⁠And bring the…”

The story

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’)).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with clock, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Medieval Latin clocca ‘bell, clock, cloak’

1 more relative in the full family tree

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Another origin of clock

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*klukkwōną‘to cluck’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*klukkwōn‘to cluck’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150cloccian‘to cluck’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500clokken‘to cluck’
  5. Englishtodayclock

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Today it means

noun A chronometer, an instrument that measures time, particularly the time of day.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “clock”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Medieval Latin clocca / clock