“mattocks” is a form of
mattock
/ˈmætək/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms mattocks mattocking mattocked
- noun An agricultural tool whose blades are at right angles to the body, similar to a pickaxe.
- verb To cut or dig with a mattock.
- proper noun A surname.
Etymology
From Middle English mattok (“mattock, pickaxe”), from Old English mattuc, meottoc, mettoc (“mattock, fork, trident”), from Proto-West Germanic *mattjuk (“mattock, ploughshare”), from Proto-Indo-European *met- (“to cut, reap”). Related to Old High German medela (“plough”), Middle High German metze, metz (“knife”), Latin mateola (“implement for digging in the soil”), Polish motyka (“hoe, mattock”), Russian моты́га (motýga, “hoe, mattock”), Lithuanian matikkas (“mattock”), Sanskrit मत्य (matyà, “harrow, roller, club”). More at mason.
Webster’s 1913
- noun An implement for digging and grubbing. The head has two long steel blades, one like an adz and the other like a narrow ax or the point of a pickax.
Etymology [AS. mattuc; cf. W. matog.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “mattock”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details