World Wide Words -- 23 Aug 03

[Michael Quinion]

WORLD WIDE WORDS         ISSUE 355          Saturday 23 August 2003
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Sent each Saturday to 17,000+ subscribers in at least 120 countries
Editor: Michael Quinion, Thornbury, Bristol, UK      ISSN 1470-1448
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Feedback, notes and comments
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SHORT COMMONS  August's issues are briefer than usual, because I'm
taking a break. (The laying of the new patio is coming on nicely,
you will be pleased to hear. However, there are still many e-mail
messages awaiting replies; sorry about that). Normal service will
be resumed on 6 September.


Weird Words: Killick
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An anchor; a leading seaman in the British navy.

This word has been around in its literal sense since the sixteenth
century. To start with, it usually referred to a rock or big stone
that a ship used in lieu of a metal anchor. A fairly modern example
is in Jim Davis, by John Masefield: "In the shallow water near the
beach, we dropped our killick".

Nobody seems to know where the word comes from, though it has been
argued it's from the Irish word "killech" for a wooden anchor (you
might think a wooden anchor would uselessly float, but it actually
consists of a wooden frame enclosing a rock, an ancient type that's
still used in places). The Concise Scots Dictionary, on the other
hand, suggests it comes from Scots "gelloch" for the hole in the
centre of a pickaxe blade (a word for which many of us have for
ages felt an unassuageable need).

The records show the word has been spelled in so many ways that it
was clearly a colloquial or slang term that was passed on mainly in
speech. It is now pretty much obsolete in British English, other
than as a jargon term in the Navy, though it has been known in
Australia under the spelling "kellick". A leading hand in the Royal
Navy is nicknamed that because his badge of rank has a single small
anchor on it.


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