Clock = Klok = Bell

[ticktocktwang]

The wikipedia article cited mentions a celtic origin for "clock" = bell.  Assuming that this celtic reference is referring to the fringe celtic lands and not the continental variety, how much credence or factual evidence there is to warrant this word origin is unknown to me.  Interestingly, the tall round towers synonymous with Ireland (many were built between 900 AD and circa 1250  at various monastic sites - they always stood independent of the other monastic buildings) are referred to as "cloigtheach" -  "teach" = gaelic for house and cloig  "of the bell".  For their time, they were impressive structures, soaring to as high as 34 metres (circa 112 feet).  Whether they were always referred to as "cloigtheach" or whether this term was coined much later is again beyond my knowledge. A scholar of early and middle Irish should be able to indicate whether the term was in existence in 900 AD and/or whether the word "clog" = bell in Gaelic was actually contemporaneous with the earlier monastic hand bells. The only point I am making (and it is absolute speculation) is that if the first soaring  clock towers also housed bells, could the term have somehow been adopted/adapted in reference to these impressive round towers?  A few of these towers also exist in western Scotland and in the Isle of Mann.  Pure conjecture on my part, based on the visual impression these towers make even today- in a nutshell, could the word have crept into England  from the west or north if the term cannot be satisfactorily explained as coming from the continent? Of course, Ireland and Scotland might have been considered even more remote and foreign than France or Germany in those times!!  

--- In bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com, Frank King <Frank.King at ...> wrote:
>
> Dear All,
> 
> I apologise if this is an improper use of
> the bell historians' list...
> 
> I was in conversation with an unusually
> well-educated clock engineer last week
> and we were discussing the origin of
> the word "clock".
> 
> This is widely accepted as coming from
> one or more imported words that all mean
> bell.
> 
> Although I will happily accept that as
> an explanation, it prompts more questions
> than it answers.
> 
> In consequence, I have written some notes
> (based mostly on entries in the OED) and I
> append these after my signature.
> 
> These notes are inchoate and unscholarly
> but there just might be some readers of
> this list who can point me at other
> sources that give more explanation than
> is provided in my notes.
> 
> Frank King
> Cambridge.
> 
> 
>           THE ORIGIN OF THE WORD CLOCK AND ALLIED WORDS
> 
> The origin of the English word clock, in the sense of an instrument
> for the measurement of time, is something of a mystery.  The accepted
> view, that it comes from a word meaning bell, leaves several questions
> unanswered.
> 
> The etymology given in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) runs to
> many lines of scholarly text but comes to no firm conclusion.  These
> notes summarise what the OED has to say.
> 
> 
> FALSE START
> 
> There is a single reference to the word cluge or cluccge in the year
> 890 but, the OED asserts, this "has no historical connexion with the
> extant word".
> 
> 
> CLOCK MEANING BELL
> 
> The generally accepted derivation of the word clock is that it comes
> from the old Middle English word clok or clocke and there is a
> well-established relationship with Dutch, German and French words such
> as klok, Glocke and cloche.  In all cases, the word means bell.
> 
> Early mechanical clocks had no dials and hands, and indicated the hours
> by striking a bell.
> 
> With this in mind, a simple explanation for the origin of the word
> clock is suggested by the term "o'clock" as in four o'clock or four
> strikes on a bell.
> 
> 
> DIFFICULTIES WITH THIS EXPLANATION
> 
> This explanation may indeed be correct but there are difficulties:
> 
>   1.  The French and Germans don't use their words
>       for bell to mean clock.  They use the words
>       horloge and Uhr which relate to the Greek and
>       Latin words for hour.
> 
>   2.  Even if we did choose to use a word meaning bell
>       to describe an instrument for telling the time
>       why should we import a foreign word when we had
>       a perfectly good word, bell, of our own?
> 
> 
> THE WORD BELL - AND SOME DATES
> 
> The OED suggests that the word bell is related to the Old English verb
> bellan which means to make a loud noise, as in bellow today.  This use
> dates from 1000 and the noun bell dates from 1200.
> 
> The first use of the English word clock to mean an instrument for
> indicating the time is 1371.  By this date the word bell was in
> every-day use.  Why didn't we say 4 o'bell?  Why use a German or
> French word for bell which neither the Germans nor the French
> themselves used for these new instruments?  Indeed, no other
> language uses a word meaning bell to describe what we call clocks.
> 
> 
> SUMMARY
> 
> Such evidence as there is, indicates that the word clock, in the sense
> of an instrument for the measurement of time, does indeed come from
> imported words for bell but quite how and why is not clear.
> 
> Even the origin of the word clock meaning bell is unclear.  The
> OED says:
> 
>   Wherever it actually arose, it was probably echoic, imitating
>   the rattling made by the early handbells of sheet-iron and
>   quadrilateral shape, rather than the ringing of the cast
>   circular bell of later date.  
> 
> 
> THE WORD DIAL - MORE DATES
> 
> Eventually, clocks incorporated dials and the word dial was simply a
> re-use of the word that described what we now know as a sundial.  A
> little more explanation is required...
> 
> Before mechanical clocks were invented, the principal way to tell the
> time was to use a sundial but the English word sundial appeared
> surprisingly late.
> 
> The OED asserts that the first known use of the word sundial was in
> 1599, long after mechanical clocks had been invented.  Before then,
> the word dial was used, unqualified by the prefix sun.  Again quoting
> the OED, this word is presumably a derivative of the Latin dies, a
> day.  The shadow on a sundial goes round once per day.
> 
> Intriguingly, the word dial also appeared surprisingly late, even
> in the sense of sundial.  The OED gives 1430 as its first reference.
> This is some while after mechanical clocks appeared and many, many
> centuries after dials (as sundials) were in common use.
> 
> There is no direct equivalent of dial (coming from dies) outside English.
> The French word is cadran, the German word is Uhr (really from the Greek
> and Latin hora) and the Italian word is disco or quadrante.
> 
> 
> THE WORDS DAY AND HOUR
> 
> For completeness, the origin of the word day is worth noting.  This
> has Teutonic origins, as in the Low German Dag or Modern German Tag.
> The OED gives the first use of the word day as 1000 and OED insists
> that the word has nothing to do with the Latin dies.
> 
> Likewise, the origin of the word hour is also of note.  This clearly
> does come from the Greek and Latin, hora, and the modern French,
> German and Italian words are obviously connected: heure, Uhr and
> ora.  The OED gives the first use of the English word hour as 1250.
> 
> Frank H. King
> 18 December 2009
>