I have three new essays in Posts showing that the English colloquialism ‘chock-a-block’ (very crowded) is really a borrowing from Turkish, and nothing do to with ropes and pulleys, as every etymological dictionary incorrectly maintains.

First essay: that ‘chock-a-block’ is a borrowing from Turkish. Second essay: the conventional etymology makes no sense. Third essay: how the Turkish origins were lost. I hope you enjoy them (and also find them convincing).

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Posts

On the posts page are short essays on various themes that have caught my attention over the years: for example, concerning a double meaning in the New Testament image of the Mote and the Beam; or a detail I recently noticed about the Noble Lie, an idea that is supposedly to be found in Plato’s Republic; and in my view most interestingly, that the English colloquialism ‘chock-a-block’ is a borrowing from Turkish, dating to at least the 16th century,