clay
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also Clay
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[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
From Old English clǣġ, from Proto-Germanic *klajjaz, from *kli- “to stick, cleave”, from Proto-Indo-European *glei- (“to glue, paste, stick together”).[1] Cognate with Dutch klei, German Klei; compare Ancient Greek γλία (glía), Latin glūs (“glue”).
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Noun
clay (usually uncountable; plural clays)
- A mineral substance made up of small crystals of silica and alumina, that is ductile when moist; the material of pre-fired ceramics.
- An earth material with ductile qualities.
- (tennis) A tennis court surface.
- The French Open is played on clay.
- (biblical) The material of the human body.
- 1611. Old Testament, King James Version, Job 10:8-9:
- Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about...thou hast made me as the clay.
- 1611. Old Testament, King James Version, Isaiah 64:8:
- But now, O Lord, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou art our potter; and we are the work of thy hand.
- 1611. Old Testament, King James Version, Job 10:8-9:
[edit] Antonyms
[edit] Hyponyms
[edit] Derived terms
[edit] Translations
mineral substance
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tennis court surface
[edit] See also
[edit] Verb
clay (third-person singular simple present clays, present participle claying, simple past and past participle clayed)
- (transitive) To add clay to, to spread clay onto.
- (transitive, of sugar) To purify using clay.
- 1776, Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book IV, Chapter 7: Of Colonies, Part 2: Causes of Prosperity of New Colonies,
- They amounted, therefore, to a prohibition, at first of claying or refining sugar for any foreign market, and at present of claying or refining it for the market, which takes off, perhaps, more than nine-tenths of the whole produce.
- 1809, Jonathan Williams, On the Process of Claying Sugar, in Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Volume 6.
- 1985, Stuart B. Schwartz, Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society: Bahia, 1550-1835, page 200,
- The Portuguese had mastered the technique of claying sugar, and other European nations tried to learn the secrets from them.
- 1776, Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book IV, Chapter 7: Of Colonies, Part 2: Causes of Prosperity of New Colonies,
[edit] References
- ^ Krueger 1982; Merriam-Webster 1974.
- Krueger, Dennis (December 1982). "Why On Earth Do They Call It Throwing?" Studio Potter Vol. 11, Number 1.[1] (etymology)
- “clay” in the Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, 1974 edition.
- Clay, New Webster Dictionary of English Language, 1980 edition.
