Two common words

According to the Merriam Webster´s Dictionary, the origin of the word “clock” can be traced back to the Middle English word “clok”, Middle Dutch “clocke”, Old French “cloque”, Medieval Latin “clocca” and Middle Irish “clocc”, all of which mean “bell.” When the clock we know was invented in around the 14th century, it told the time using bells that went off on the hour and on quarters and half hours. People say five o´clock, etc., as an abbreviation of “of the clock”, or, in other words, “of the bell.”


Have ever “gotten the sack”? I hope not. The expression was born before the industrial era when a worker carried his tools in a sack. When he was dismissed, the employer gave him his tools and literally “got the sack.”

Cesar Klauer


Sources:


The Little Books of Answers, Doug Lennox, MJF Books, New York, 2003


Merriam Webster´s Dictionary