- caliber
- 1567, from M.Fr. calibre, via Sp. or It., ult. from Arabic qalib "a mold, last," perhaps from Gk. kalopodion "a shoemaker's last," lit. "little wooden foot," from kalon "wood" + podos gen. of pous "foot" (see foot). Arabic also used the word in the sense "mold for casting bullets," which is the original lit. meaning in Eng., though the earliest cited sense is the fig. one of "social standing, quality, rank." Calibrate is attested from 1864.