# calx
## English
### Etymology

From Latin calx (“lime”). Doublet of cauk and chalk.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kælks/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Rhymes: -ælks

### Noun

calx (plural calces or calxes)
* (now chiefly historical) The substance which remains after a metal or mineral has been thoroughly burnt, once seen as being the essential substance left after the expulsion of phlogiston, but now recognised as being the metallic oxide (or, in some cases, the metal in a state of sublimation).
** 1796, Erasmus Darwin, “[Class III. Diseases of Volition.] Ordo I. Increased Volition. Genus II. With Increased Actions of the Organs of Sense.”, in Zoonomia; or, The Laws of Organic Life, volume II, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, paragraph 12, page 375:[S]ome ladies apply to what are termed coſmetics under various names, which crowd the newspapers. Of theſe the white has deſtroyed the health of thouſands; a calx, or magiſtery, of biſmuth is ſuppoſed to be ſold in the ſhops for this purpoſe; but it is either, I am informed, in part or entirely white lead or ceruffa. […] The real calx of biſmuth would probably have the ſame ill effect.
** 2004, Robert E Schofield, The Enlightened Joseph Priestley, Pennsylvania State University, page 179:The regeneration of mercury from its calx, without addition of any other substance, had been a chief example for anti-phlogiston, but that could, as Kirwan showed, be explained in a way consistent with phlogiston theory.
* In the Eton College wall game, an area at the end of the field where a shy can be scored by lifting the ball against the wall with one's foot.

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

## Latin
### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /kalks/, [käɫ̪ks̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /kalks/, [kälks]

### Etymology 1

De Vaan's claim substrate origin is implausible given Sanskrit कर्कर (karkara, “limestone, bone”). See also Ancient Greek χάλιξ (khálix, “pebble”).

#### Noun

calx f (genitive calcis); third declension
* limestone
* chalk
* the finish line

##### Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

##### Derived terms

* calcārius
* calcifraga
* calcium
* calculus

##### Related terms

* calculātiō
* calculātor

##### Descendants

* Franco-Provençal: chôlx
* Gallo-Italic
** Lombard: cals (“calcium”)
** Piedmontese: causs (“calcium”)
* Old French: chaus
** French: chaux
* Old Occitan:
** Catalan: calç
** Occitan: calç, cauç
    Gascon: cautz, cauci, còci
    Nord-Occitan: chauç
* Italo-Dalmatian
** Corsican: calce
** Italian: calce
** Neapolitan: cauce
** Sicilian: cauci
* West Iberian
** Aragonese: calso
* ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *calciāta (“paved road”)
** Franco-Provençal: chossià, chossà
** French: chaussée
** Old Occitan:
*** Catalan: calçada
*** Occitan: cauçada
    Languedocien: colçada
    Nord-Occitan: chauçada
** Sicilian: cauciata
** West Iberian
*** Aragonese: calçada
*** Asturian: calzada
*** Mozarabic: *calčata
**** → Catalan: carxata
*** Old Galician-Portuguese: calçada
**** Galician: calzada
**** Portuguese: calçada
*** Spanish: calzada
**** → Cebuano: karsada, kalsada
**** → Hiligaynon: kalsada
**** → Tagalog: kalsada
* ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *calcīna (“lime, limestone”)
** Gallo-Italic
*** Emilian: calsena, calseina
*** Ligurian: câssinn-a
*** Lombard: calsina, culsina, culsena
*** Piedmontese: caussin-a, caussen-a, coussen-a
*** Romagnol: calseina
** Italo-Dalmatian
*** Italian: calcina
*** Sicilian: caucina
** Old Occitan:
*** Catalan: calcina
*** Occitan:
    Gascon: caucia, caucea, causia, causea, causena, causeia
    Languedocien: caucina
    Vivaro-Alpine: chaucina
** West Iberian
*** Aragonese: calcina, calsina
* ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *calem (through *calis, from cals)
** West Iberian
*** Extremaduran: cal
*** Old Leonese:
**** Asturian: cal
**** Leonese: cal
**** Mirandese: cal
*** Old Galician-Portuguese: cal
**** Galician: cal
**** Portuguese: cal
*** Spanish: cal

###### Borrowings

* → Albanian: gëlqë
* → Proto-Brythonic: *kalx
** Cornish: calch, calh
** Middle Welsh: calch
*** Welsh: calch
* → English: calx
* → Esperanto: kalko
* → Proto-West Germanic: *kalk (see there for further descendants)
* → Ido: kalko
* → Old Irish: cailc
** Irish: cailc
** Manx: kelk
** Scottish Gaelic: cailc
* → Romanian: calce

### Etymology 2

Uncertain, with possibilities including:
* An extension of the Proto-Indo-European root *(s)kel- (“to bend”).
* Non-Indo-European (possibly Etruscan) origin; however, de Vaan notes the lack of a "concrete comparandum" for this.
* From Proto-Indo-European *klHk(ᵂ)-(n)-, related to Serbo-Croatian kuk (“thigh, hip”), Bulgarian кълка (kǎlka, “hip”), Russian колк (kolk, “bony stump”), Latvian kulksnis (“hock”), Lithuanian kulksnis (“ankle”), Old Prussian culczi (“hip”) and possibly Sanskrit कल्कुषी (kalkuṣī́, “wrist and elbow”).

#### Noun

calx f (genitive calcis); third declension
* (anatomy) heel (of the foot)
    Synonyms: tālus, (Medieval Latin) tālō

##### Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

##### Derived terms

* calcāneum
* calcāneus
* calcar
* calceō
* calceus
* calciō
* calcitrō
* calcō
* conculcō
* inculcō

##### Descendants

* Direct reflexes:
** Italian: calcio
** Piedmontese: causs, còuss
** Old Galician-Portuguese: couce m
*** Galician: couce m
*** Portuguese: coice m, (dated or dialectal) couce m
** Old Spanish: coçe
*** Spanish: coz f
* Derived forms:
** ⇒ Vulgar Latin: *calcīcāre
*** Catalan: calcigar
*** Occitan: calcigar
*** Sardinian: accaccigai
** ⇒ Medieval Latin: calcatrippa
*** Italian: calcatrippa, calcatreppola, cacatreppola
*** → Old English: calcatrippe
**** English: caltrop

### References

* ↑ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “calx, -cis 'lime, limestone'”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 86
* ↑ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “calx, -cis 'heel; hoof'”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 86
* ↑ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “calcaneus”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
* ↑ Schrijver, P. (2024). The Reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European Laryngeals in Latin. Netherlands: Brill, p. 207
* ↑ Mayrhofer, Manfred (1992) Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen [Etymological Dictionary of Old Indo-Aryan]‎ (in German), volume 1, Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, page 323

### Further reading

* (limestone) “calx”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* (heel) “calx”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “calx”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* calx in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
* calx in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.