Mattock Definition

mătək
mattocks
noun
A tool for loosening the soil, digging up and cutting roots, etc.: it is like a pickax but has a flat, adz-shaped blade on one or both sides.
Webster's New World
Synonyms:

Other Word Forms of Mattock

Noun

Singular:
mattock
Plural:
mattocks

Origin of Mattock

  • From Middle English mattok (“mattock, pickaxe"), from Old English mattuc, meottoc, mettac (“mattock, fork, trident"), from Proto-Germanic *mattukaz (“mattock, ploughshare"), from Proto-Indo-European *matn-, *mat- (“a hoe, ploughshare"). Related to Old High German medela (“plough"), Middle High German metze, metz (“knife"), Latin mateola (“implement for digging in the soil"), Polish motyka (“hoe, mattock"), Russian мотыга (motýga, “hoe, mattock"), Lithuanian matikkas (“mattock"), Sanskrit मत्य (matyà, “harrow, roller, club"). More at mason.

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English from Old English mattuc perhaps from Vulgar Latin matteūca club akin to *mattea mace1

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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