Jennifer, an elementary-school teacher in Tallahassee, Florida, loves saying the term chockablock, meaning “closely packed together,” and wonders about its etymology. Chock can refer to a kind of wedge used to hold something in place, and chockablock is the point in a block-and-tackle pulley system where the wooden blocks that contain pulleys on a rope are pulled in contact with each other, so that they can move no farther. Sailors also call this situation two-block or block-and-block, but by the 19th century, the term chockablock had come ashore and taken on the meaning of “very full.” For a good illustration of this condition, check out The Overlook Illustrated Dictionary of Nautical Terms by Graham Blackburn. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Chockablock Is Fun to Say and Has Interesting Origins”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Jennifer from Tallahassee.
Hi, Jennifer. Welcome to the show.
Hey, Jennifer.
Well, I tutor elementary age children, and we love words, and we like to talk about the sounds and meanings of words.
And the other day I was getting into one of my book bags, and I said something about my book bag being chock-a-block full.
And she said, what does chock-a-block mean?
So I said, I have no idea.
Actually, I have a connotation.
I think that it means like happily full, but I don’t know.
So I thought I’d call you all and ask.
Yeah, so it was crammed full.
I mean, that’s the idea of chock-a-block, right?
Right.
It was very full of things.
And I said it was chock-a-block full, yes.
It’s a delicious term to say, too, isn’t it?
Chock-a-block.
Isn’t it so fun?
Actually, that’s what we did.
We paused and said it together a couple of times afterwards because it is so fun to say.
Chock-a-block.
Jennifer, it’s even more fun than that because there’s some really interesting history behind the term chock-a-block.
You may know the term chalk, which is an old word, C-H-O-C-K.
Chalk, which is an old word for a wedge that’s used to keep something in place.
And on old sailing ships, you would put wooden chocks under a barrel to keep it from moving, you know, when the ship is at sea.
Or you might chalk an anchor when it’s not in use.
And we’re not sure of the origin of chalk, although it may be related to the earlier term, chalk full.
So hold on to that part of it, chalk.
The block in this case comes from the block and tackle system of pulleys on an old ship.
It’s what helps you do things like raise and lower a heavy sail.
And with a block and tackle system, in its simplest form, it involves threading a rope through blocks of wood that contain a pulley.
And in that block and tackle system, one block containing a pulley stays still and you pull on the rope and the other pulley, which is also in a block, moves up and down as you pull on that rope.
So when you’re pulling on that rope on a ship and that moving block containing the pulley gets all the way up to the stationary one, then those blocks are now jammed up against each other.
It’s like no matter how hard you pull, you can’t pull any more, you’ve pulled the rope as far as it’ll go.
And those blocks are said to be chock-a-block.
It’s as if something like a chalk is preventing them from moving.
How cool is that?
That is so interesting.
So really, it’s like a sailor term.
It’s like, it’s a ship.
How interesting, I would have never guessed.
So about how old is it? Do you know? Do you know when it was first?
Well, it was, it’s been around for hundreds of years, but it was by the early 19th century that we landlubbers started using it to describe something that’s really close together, chock-a-block.
Sometimes sailors call that situation two-block or block-and-block, but the one that stuck is your beloved word.
That is so much fun.
So maybe next time when I’m with my students, I should say it like a pirate, right?
Say something like, argh, me.
You sound like my kind of teacher, Jennifer.
We do.
I believe we have such a good time.
We learn a lot, but we really do make learning.
We have a really good time.
You sound like a fun teacher.
I want to go back to school.
Come on.
Come on, Grant.
We can talk about words.
Jennifer, thank you so much for calling us and brightening our day.
We really appreciate it.
Thank you.
It was really a lot of fun.
I appreciate you all, and I just adore the show.
Thank you so much.
All right.
Take care now.
Be well.
Thank you.
Bye, y’all.
Bye.
Bye.
If you want to see what Chocobot looks like, as Martha described it, there’s a picture in Graham Blackburn’s Illustrated Dictionary of Nautical Terms.
You can find that at archive.org or openlibrary.org.
That’s Graham Blackburn’s Illustrated Dictionary of Nautical Terms.
So much history inside a single word.
We love talking about that.
Call us about the word that’s been rattling around in your brain or delighting you to say.
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The address is words@waywordradio.org.
