(Piano music) 

Hello and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

Most English words have arrived here either via Latin or Germanic ones. And because it was easier geographically, the ones that originated in Greece are the Latin based ones. But there are some exceptions and today we have one of them. A small pebble in ancient Greece was called Κάλυξ (Calix) and in Latin it was called 'Calx' . However, the word did not go to the French and then English as usual but it rerouted to Germany where they used it for 'limestone'. So, when the word came here and was called 'caelc' in old English, it meant 'the soft, white limestone' found on the South of England and cut in small pieces it was used to mark debt or game scores. The modern spelling of the work is from the 14th century mimicking the Latin one. ΚΑΛΥΞ/CHALK

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