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chockablock
May. 6th, 2019 07:50 amchockablock or chock-a-block or chock a block (CHOK-uh-BLOK) - adj., extremely full, crowded, jammed. adv., in a crowded manner, completely closed and full.
Originally a nautical term for the when the blocks of hoisting tackle have been pulled together so that no further movement is possible -- so the blocks are stuck, as if fixed in place by chocks. Imagine the lines in these are pulled until the round blocks are closed up:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
Chocks themselves go back to Anglo-Norman, origin uncertain but apparently Gaulish, in turn taken from a Germanic root. Block has a solid PIE root meaning a thick piece of wood, in this sense also via Anglo-Norman instead of its Old English cognate which meant a plank or more specifically a ship's gangway.
---L.
Originally a nautical term for the when the blocks of hoisting tackle have been pulled together so that no further movement is possible -- so the blocks are stuck, as if fixed in place by chocks. Imagine the lines in these are pulled until the round blocks are closed up:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
Chocks themselves go back to Anglo-Norman, origin uncertain but apparently Gaulish, in turn taken from a Germanic root. Block has a solid PIE root meaning a thick piece of wood, in this sense also via Anglo-Norman instead of its Old English cognate which meant a plank or more specifically a ship's gangway.
---L.
