According to OED, it has meant "One of the portions into which a head of hair, a beard, etc., naturally divides itself; a tress" since the 700s. Interestingly, etymology.com doesn't mention the "hair" lock. They discuss the other forms of "lock" (river lock and door lock) as being two independent formations from the root. Are there three?
Since I never (well, almost) look anything up, I'd guess that the lock on a river would be related to "loch," since a little loch, or lake, is formed by a lock on a river. Now you folks who DO look stuff up can tell me if I'm all wet!
Lock the hair (OE locc) is a common Germanic root, and seems to come from an earlier sense 'curl', cf. Old Norse lykkr 'loop, bend, crook', Lithuanian lugnas 'pliable'.
Lock the fastening is a different root, OE loc, with the general sense 'closure': so Old Norse loka 'lock', German Loch 'dungeon', Swedish lock 'lid'. The original meaning on rivers was a single barrier that closed off a portion; then it was applied to the space between two such locks.
Unrelated to Gaelic loch, Latin lacus > 'lake'.This message has been edited. Last edited by: aput,
The OED Online gives an etymology for lock the hair and lock the fastener. The sentence after the first etymology seems to say they may have the same root. Am I misreading something? I don't understand it well so I'll just reproduce it here.
quote:
lock, n.1 [OE. loc masc. = OS.? loc (MS. loci, glossing cesariem; MDu. locke, Du. lok fem.), OHG. loc masc. (MHG. loc masc. , pl. locke, mod.G. locke fem.), ON. lokk-r masc. (Sw. lock, Da. lok): OTeut. * lokko-z, *lukko-z: pre-Teut. *lugno-s. Cognate words in Teut. are ON. lykkja loop, bend (Norw. lykke, Da. løkke), mod.Icel. (h) lykkur a bend.
The pre-Teut. root *l g- (:leug- : loug-) prob. meant ‘to bend’; (Cf. Lith. palugnas compliant); it is formally coincident, or perh. really identical, with the root of LOCK n.2, LOUK v.]
1. One of the portions into which a head of hair, a beard, etc., naturally divides itself; a tress. In pl. often = the hair of the head collectively. fickle under her lock: ? having guile in her head.
lock, n.2 [OE. loc neut. corresponds to OFris. lok lock, OS. lok hole, OHG. loh (MHG., mod.G. loch) hole, ON. lok lid, also end, conclusion (Sw. lock, Da. laag lid): OTeut. *lokom, *lukom, f. *luk-, wk.-grade of the root *l k- (:leuk- : louk-) to close, enclose (see LOUK v.). OE. had also from the same root loca wk. masc. (cf. ON. loka wk. fem., lock or latch, MDu. l ke enclosure): see LOKE.
The great diversity of meanings in the Teut. words seems to indicate two or more independent but formally identical substantival formations from the root.]
I. A contrivance for fastening.
1. a. An appliance for fastening a door, lid, etc., consisting of a bolt (or system of bolts) with mechanism by which it can be propelled and withdrawn by means of a key or similar instrument. (In OE. app. used with wider meaning, applied, e.g. to a bar, bolt, latch, or the like.)
TinmanThis message has been edited. Last edited by: tinman,
This is just saying lock (hair) and lock (fastening) have the same form, but at the earliest stage that can be traced definitively. It no more means they actually are the same than the fact that Modern English has 'lock' and 'lock' means they're the same. Old English could have homophones just as any other language can.
or perh. really identical
Now I don't see what that could be based on. We've got one root 'curl, bend' and another 'close, enclose' or 'hole'. It's straining to suggest a common underlying origin for both. There's nothing obvious that could give rise to both.
Am I misreading something? I don't understand it well so I'll just reproduce it here.
Thanks, Tinman! Sometimes I think I am just stupid because I can't understand the way either the OED or etymology.com discusses etymology. Is there a book that would help with that? For example, I thought "Germanic" was "German," too. I would just love to be able to understand etymology discussions more.
Originally posted by aput: Now I don't see what that could be based on. We've got one root 'curl, bend' and another 'close, enclose' or 'hole'. It's straining to suggest a common underlying origin for both. There's nothing obvious that could give rise to both.
Well, I can see a relationship between the words curl, bend and close, enclose and hole. If you bend a wire to form an arc of a certain degree and keep bending it along its length at the same degree, the ends of the wire will meet, or close, surrounding or enclosing a hole. If you wind, or curl your hair around hair rollers and treat it with chemical solutions, a "permanent" wave, or curl, results. Yes, I can definitely see a relationship between the words.
