different between hollow vs dalk

English

Alternative forms

• hallow
• holler (nonstandard: dialectal, especially Southern US)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?h?l.??/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?h?.lo?/
  • (Southern American English, Appalachia) IPA^(key): /h?l?/
• Rhymes: -?l??

Etymology 1

From Middle English holow, holowe, holwe, holw?, holgh, from Old English holh (“a hollow”), from Proto-Germanic *halhwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *?el?wos. Cognate with Old High German huliwa and hulwa, Middle High German hülwe. Perhaps related to hole.

Noun

hollow (plural hollows)

1. A small valley between mountains.
   • c. 1710–20, Matthew Prior, The First Hymn Of Callimachus: To Jupiter

     Forests grew upon the barren hollows.
2. A sunken area or unfilled space in something solid; a cavity, natural or artificial.

3. (figuratively) A feeling of emptiness.

4. (US) A sunken area.

Translations

Verb

hollow (third-person singular simple present hollows, present participle hollowing, simple past and past participle hollowed)

1. (transitive) to make a hole in something; to excavate

Etymology 2

From Middle English holowe, holwe, holu?, holgh, from the noun (see above).

Adjective

hollow (comparative hollower, superlative hollowest)

1. (of something solid) Having an empty space or cavity inside.

   a hollow tree; a hollow sphere

2. (of a sound) Distant, eerie; echoing, reverberating, as if in a hollow space; dull, muffled; often low-pitched.
   • 1903, George Gordon Byron, On Leaving Newstead Abbey

     Through thy battlements, Newstead, the hollow winds whistle:

3. (figuratively) Without substance; having no real or significant worth; meaningless.

   a hollow victory

4. (figuratively) Insincere, devoid of validity; specious.

   a hollow promise

5. Concave; gaunt; sunken.
   • c. 1596-1599, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

     To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow

6. (gymnastics) Pertaining to hollow body position

Derived terms

• hollow leg

Translations

Adverb

hollow (not comparable)

1. (colloquial) Completely, as part of the phrase beat hollow or beat all hollow.

Etymology 3

Compare holler.

Verb

hollow (third-person singular simple present hollows, present participle hollowing, simple past and past participle hollowed)

1. To call or urge by shouting; to hollo.
   • 1814. Sir Walter Scott, Waverley

     He has hollowed the hounds.

Interjection

hollow

1. Alternative form of hollo

References

• hollow in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

English

Etymology 1

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

Noun

dalk (plural dalks)

1. A pin; brooch; clasp

Etymology 2

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

Alternative forms

• delk

Noun

dalk (plural dalks)

1. (now rare) A hollow or depression.
   • 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin 2011, p. 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.

Afrikaans

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dalk/

Adverb

dalk

1. perchance, perhaps, possibly

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English dalc, from Proto-Germanic *dalkaz.

Noun

dalk

1. Alternative form of dalke (“brooch”)

Etymology 2

From Old English *daluc.

Noun

dalk

1. Alternative form of dalke (“depression”)