Quick Facts:
Why are the wedges used under wheels of airplanes called “chalks?”
The oldest dog reliably documented was an Australian cattle dog named Bluey. After 29 years and 5 months of faithful service, Bluey was put to rest in 1939.
On a recent flight I heard the word “chalks” used and of course it got me wondering where it came from. A “chock” is a wedge of wood or metal that you place behind a wheel to keep a vehicle from rolling. Simply enough, the word’s original meaning was ‘lumpy piece of wood,’ from Old North French ‘choque,’ or ‘block.’ Then there’s that other “chalk” that we used on blackboards and sidewalks, from the old English ‘cealc’, meaning soft white limestone, lime or plaster. Chalk (calcium carbonate) has been found in cave paintings that date back to 40,000 BC, while gypsum (calcium sulfate) has been used as a mortar for construction since the dawn of civilization, and is even found in the Egyptian pyramids. I mention gypsum because, most chalk today isn’t technically chalk at all, but gypsum!
In 1998, Russian wolfhound Olive Oyl of Grayslake, Illinois, made the Guinness Book of World Records when she skipped rope 63 times in one minute. Zorba, an Old English mastiff, was the world’s heaviest and longest dog ever recorded. Zorba weighed 343 pounds and, from nose to tail, was eight feet three inches long. Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute.
Why do we call our parents “mom” and “dad?”
Photo by: Antonino Visalli
The words can be traced back to the 1500’s for “dad” and the 1800’s for “mom”. Where these words were first uttered and by whom is a mystery. In fact, the Oxford English Dictionary has admitted that they have “no evidence” on where the word “dad” originated. Some speculation says it comes from ‘dada,’ one of the words a baby can say consistently. The word “mom”, on the other hand, is a slightly different story and it’s widely believed that the word was born from the much older word “mamma” which itself can be traced back to the 1500’s in English. This, in turn, can be traced back to Latin where “mamma” meant “breast” or “teat”. From this word, we also got the word “mammalia” and later “mammal” to describe animals that suckle their young. Amazingly, a word extremely similar to “mom” occurs in almost every language on Earth. For example, if you wanted to address your mother in Dutch you’d say “moeder”, if you were to travel to Germany you’d call her “mutter”, while over in Italy you’d refer to her as, “madre”. Other examples include; Chinese: Mãma, Hindi: Mam, Afrikaans: Ma, and Swahili: Mama.
February 2020
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