- clock (n.)
- late 14c., clokke, originally "clock with bells," probably from Middle Dutch clocke (Dutch klok), from Old North French cloque, from Medieva Latin (7c.) clocca "bell," probably from Celtic (cf. Old Irish clocc, Welsh cloch "bell") and spread by Irish missionaries (unless the Celtic words are from Latin); ultimately of imitative origin. Replaced Old English dægmæl, from dæg "day" + mæl "measure, mark." The Latin word was horologium; the Greeks used a water-clock (klepsydra, literally "water thief").
- clock (v.)
- "to time by the clock," 1883, from clock (n.). The slang sense of "hit, sock" is 1941, originally Australian, probably from earlier slang clock (n.) "face" (1923).