dalk

From Middle English dalke, dalk, from Old English dalc (“clasp, buckle, brooch, bracelet”), from Proto-Germanic *dalkaz (“clasp, pin”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰelg- (“to stick; needle, pin”). Cognate with Icelandic dálkur (“cloak-pin”), Latin falx (“scythe”). Doublet of falx.

dalk (plural dalks)

1. A pin; brooch; clasp.

From Middle English dalke; perhaps a diminutive of dale, dell. In that case from Old English *daluc, from Proto-Germanic *dalukaz.

• delk

dalk (plural dalks)

1. (now rare) A hollow or depression.
   • 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin, published 2011, page 120:

     On a sunny September morning, with the trees still green, but the asters and fleabanes already taking over in ditch and dalk, Van set out for Ladoga, N.A.

From Dutch dadelijk, whence also the Afrikaans doublet dadelik (“immediately”). For a possible sense shift from “immediately” to “possibly” compare dialectal English drekly from directly. Note, however, that the Dutch adjective also used to mean “really, actually, indeed” (for which now daadwerkelijk, inderdaad); from this the Afrikaans sense can be derived simply through semantic weakening.

• IPA^(key): /dalk/

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dalk

1. perchance, perhaps, possibly

dalk

1. Alternative form of dalke (“brooch”)

dalk

1. Alternative form of dalke (“depression”)