shalk

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A servant.
  2. A man; fellow.

Pronunciation

/ʃɔːk/

Word forms

shalk shalks schalk schak schaik shack

Etymology

From Middle English schalk, scalk, from Old English scealc (“servant; man, soldier, sailor”), from Proto-West Germanic *skalk, from Proto-Germanic *skalkaz (“servant, knight”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to cleave, separate, part, divide”). Cognate with German Schalk (“joker”), Old Norse skálkr (“servant, rogue”) ( > Danish and Swedish skalk), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌻𐌺𐍃 (skalks, “servant”).

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.