mattock
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mat·tock
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n.
A digging tool with a flat blade set at right angles to the handle.
[Middle English, from Old English mattuc, perhaps from Vulgar Latin *matteūca, club, akin to *mattea. See mace1.]
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mattock
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
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mattock
Picklike digging implement, one of the oldest tools of agriculture. It resembles the modern hoe but with a stone or wooden blade rather than a metal one, set at right angles to a long wooden handle. Though large-scale agriculture uses plows, harrows, and rotary hoes that open many rows of a field simultaneously, home gardeners and horticulturists may still use mattocks to loosen dirt and to chop weeds.
For more information on mattock, visit Britannica.com.
A tool for loosening soil in digging; shaped like a pickax, but having one of its ends broad instead of pointed.
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[Ar]
A digging tool comprising a flat blade set transversely to a wooden handle. The oldest examples are Mesolithic in date and were presumably used for digging holes and grubbing up edible roots and tubers. Later examples were extensively used for breaking up ground for agriculture. Also called a hoe.
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categories related to 'mattock'
- Shovels and Digging and Lifting Tools - mattock: pickaxlike tool with one broad end, used for loosening soil by digging
- Tools, Machinery, and Structures - mattock: pickaxlike tool with one broad end, used for loosening soil by digging
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Mattock
A mattock is a versatile hand tool, used for digging and chopping, similar to the pickaxe. It has a long handle, and a stout head, which combines an axe blade and an adze (cutter mattock) or a pick and an adze (pick mattock).
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Description
A mattock has a shaft, typically made of wood, which is about 3–4 ft (0.9–1.2 m) long.[1] The head comprises two ends, opposite each other, and separated by a central eye; a mattock head typically weighs 3–7 lb (1.4–3.2 kg).[1] The form of the head determines its identity and its use:[2]
- The head of a pick mattock combines a pick and an adze. It is "one of the best tools for grubbing in hard soils and rocky terrain".[2] The adze may be sharpened, but the pick rarely is; it is generally squared rather than beveled.[2]
- The head of a cutter mattock combines an axe with an adze. Thus, it has two flat blades, facing away from each other, and one rotated 90° relative to the other. The blade is designed to be used for cutting through roots.[2]
The handle of a mattock fits into the oval eye in the head, and is fixed by striking the head end of the handle against a solid surface, such as a tree stump, a rock or firm ground. A similar action, while holding the head, allows the handle to be removed.[2] In the eastern United States, mattock handles are often fitted with a screw below the head and parallel with it, to prevent the head slipping down the handle; in the western United States, where tools are more commonly dismantled for transport, this is rarely done.[2]
Uses
Mattocks are "the most versatile of hand-planting tools".[3] They can be used to chop into the ground with the adze and pull the soil towards the user, opening a slit to plant into.[3] They can also be used to dig holes for planting into, and are particularly useful where there is a thick layer of matted sod.[3] The use of a mattock can be tiring because of the effort needed to drive the blade into the ground, and the amount of bending and stooping involved.[3]
The adze of a mattock is useful for digging or hoeing, especially in hard soil.[1]
Cutter mattocks (Swahili: jembe-shoka) are used in rural Africa for removing stumps from fields, including unwanted banana suckers.[4]
History
As a simple but effective tool, mattocks have a long history. Their shape was already established by the Bronze Age in Asia Minor and Ancient Greece.,[5] and mattocks (Greek: μάκελλα) were the most commonly depicted tool in Byzantine manuscripts of Hesiod's Works and Days.[6]
Mattocks made from antlers first appear in the British Isles in the Late Mesolithic. They were probably used chiefly for digging, and may have been related to the rise of agriculture.[7] Mattocks made of whalebone were used for tasks including flensing – stripping blubber from the carcass of a whale – by the broch people of Scotland and by the Inuit.[8]
Etymology
The word mattock, pronounced /ˈmætək/, is of unclear origin. There are no cognates in other Germanic languages, and similar words in various Celtic languages are borrowings from the English (e.g. Welsh: matog, Irish: matóg, Scottish Gaelic: màdog).[9] It may be derived from the unattested Vulgar Latin matteūca, meaning club or cudgel. The New English Dictionary of 1906 interpreted mattock as a diminutive, but there is no root to derive it from, and no semantic reason for the diminutive formation.[9] Forms such as mathooke, motthook and mathook were produced by folk etymology. Dubious connections have also been suggested with words in Balto-Slavic languages, including Old Church Slavonic motyga and Lithuanian matikas.[9]
While the noun "mattock" is attested from Old English onwards, the transitive verb "to mattock" or "to mattock up" first appeared in the mid-17th century.[9]
See also
References
- ^ a b c Cathy Cromell (2010). "Tools of the Trade". Composting For Dummies. For Dummies. pp. 15–28. ISBN 978-0-470-58161-2. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_taRoN5gElMC&pg=PA24.
- ^ a b c d e f Robert C. Birkby (2006). "Tools". Lightly on the Land: the SCA Trail-building and Maintenance Manual (2nd ed.). The Mountaineers Books. pp. 75–102. ISBN 978-0-89886-848-7. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xD6ThtJNgLkC&pg=PA86.
- ^ a b c d Robert D. Wray (2009). "The planting job". Christmas Trees for Pleasure and Profit (4th ed.). Rutgers University Press. pp. 75–92. ISBN 978-0-8135-4417-5. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rBbZtqi6RaEC&pg=PA82.
- ^ Björn Mothander, Finn Kjærby & Kjell J. Havnevik (1989). "Types of farm implements used in Tanzania". Farm Implements for Small-scale Farmers in Tanzania. Nordic Africa Institute. pp. 22–72. ISBN 978-91-7106-290-1. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0N0mJ8cvM2gC&pg=PA41.
- ^ Isabelle Kelly Raubitschek (1998). "Tools". The Metal Objects (1952-1989). Volume 7 of Isthmia: Excavations by the University of Chicago, Under the Auspices of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. American School of Classical Studies at Athens. pp. 119–130. ISBN 978-0-87661-937-7. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=eGHu_Ki7QzoC&pg=PA119.
- ^ Frederick M. Hocker (2004). "Tools". In George Fletcher Bass & James W. Allan. Serçe Limani: an Eleventh-century Shipwreck, Volume 2. Volume 4 of The Nautical archaeology series. Texas A&M University Press. pp. 297–328. ISBN 978-0-89096-947-2. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=E6ZJ-05aC-sC&pg=PA315.
- ^ I. J. Thorpe (1996). "The introduction of farming to Britain and Ireland". The Origins of Agriculture in Europe. Material Cultures Series. Routledge. pp. 94–118. ISBN 978-0-415-08009-5. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XdEOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA103.
- ^ Vicki Ellen Szabo (1997). "The use of whales in early Medieval Britain". In C. P. Lewis. Studies in Medieval History. Volume 9 of The Haskins Society Journal. Boydell Press. pp. 137–158. ISBN 978-0-85115-831-0. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=___Q9caeqdoC&pg=PA154.
- ^ a b c d "Mattock". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 3rd ed. 2001.
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Translations:
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Mattock
Dansk (Danish)
n. - ryddehakke
Deutsch (German)
n. - Breithacke
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - αξίνα, τσάπα
Português (Portuguese)
n. - picareta (f)
Русский (Russian)
мотыга, рыхлить землю мотыгой
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - (röj)hacka
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
鹤嘴锄
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 鶴嘴鋤
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) معول, فأس,
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - מכוש, מעדר, חפרור
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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 1994-2012 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture & Construction
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Copyright © 2002, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
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