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cork boot
DCHP-2 (Mar 2016)
Spelling variants:corked boot, caulk(ed) boot, calk boot, cork shoe
n. — Forestry, BC and US Pacific Northwest
a boot with a spiked sole traditionally used by loggers.
Type: 5. Frequency — Loggers use boots with spikes, "caulks," in the soles to prevent slipping on wet or sloping logs (see Image 1). The spelling "cork" in cork boot comes from a misinterpretation. Many British English speakers would pronounce the word "cork" as "caulk," a pronunciation that derives from their "non-rhotic" or [r]-less dialect. When such speakers said "caulk," North American English speakers simply assumed they had said "cork" and wrote it that way. "Cork" is documented as an "erroneous" spelling of "calk", "caulk" throughout the 19th century (DAE, s.v. "Cork" n2).
The use of "cork" as an alternative to "caulk" has an analogue in the term khaki, reported by Avis (1956:43-4): Canadians who had heard the term used by non-rhotic British dialect speakers, such as soldiers in World War I, began to spell khaki as karki and pronounced it with the [r], assuming the British English speaker was silencing the [r]. Dropping the [r] sound after a vowel is a feature of the Standard British dialect.
While the term is also used in the US logging industry, it is far more prevalent in Canada (see Chart 1). DARE (s.v. "cork" (n3)) lists its earliest American attestation from 1950 and labels cork boot as "chiefly Northern US". In Canada, use of the term is most prevalent in BC (see Chart 2).
See also COD-2, s.v. "cork boot", which is marked "Cdn (BC)".
The use of "cork" as an alternative to "caulk" has an analogue in the term khaki, reported by Avis (1956:43-4): Canadians who had heard the term used by non-rhotic British dialect speakers, such as soldiers in World War I, began to spell khaki as karki and pronounced it with the [r], assuming the British English speaker was silencing the [r]. Dropping the [r] sound after a vowel is a feature of the Standard British dialect.
While the term is also used in the US logging industry, it is far more prevalent in Canada (see Chart 1). DARE (s.v. "cork" (n3)) lists its earliest American attestation from 1950 and labels cork boot as "chiefly Northern US". In Canada, use of the term is most prevalent in BC (see Chart 2).
See also COD-2, s.v. "cork boot", which is marked "Cdn (BC)".
The most prevalent spelling today varies between "cork" and "caulk". See caulked boot for other forms and past uses.
Quotations
1805
In Canada it is customary, during the winter season, in order to prevent slipping on the ice, to wear on the feet a sort of pattern, called caulks. Captain Chambers, who then acted as Commodore on the Lakes in Canada, entered the General's room without any precaution, and with his caulks made several indentations on the floor. The Governor, much irritated, cried out -- "My God! my God! Commodore! your caulks will ruin my floor!"
1876
Last week a French-Canadian from Quebec, named Mousseau, attempted to walk across the Ottawa River in cork boots. He got as far as the middle of the stream, when the swiftness of the current compelled him to return, which he did without accident.
1901
The Frenchman . . . bore him down and jumped with his heavy "corked" boots on his breast and face.
1912
For some years the shipowners whose steamers ply to the logging camps have had a problem to solve -- the wear and tear on carpets, decks and furnishings by men who come from the lumber camps with long spikes jutting from the soles of their heavy boots. [...] Mr. Burns has invented the logger's sandal and the edict will soon go forth that loggers, lumber jacks and others wearing calked boots or shoes will have to don sandals before going on board.
1949
Come on, all you husky loggers! Get in trim for the annual log-bucking contest; the first prize for this event is a pair of cork boots and a nice silver cup.
1958
Walking a boom of logs is an easy task for lumberjacks wearing caulked boots, but for a dainty princess in high-heeled fashionable footwear to manage it, special preparations had to be made. Narrow strips of plywood were placed across the logs and the royal red carpet laid along the plywood.
1965
George Street on a Saturday night is awash with visiting bushworkers, many of them still in hard hats or cork boots [...]
1979
Starry-eyed behind his student's glasses, Peter couldn't wait to sink his caulk boots into the ferny floor of the Big Woods. [...] No logger is permitted on the job minus his steel-spiked caulks (pronounced "corks").
1981
Artifacts from the forestry industry in the Museum's collection include a number of areas, the largest of which are, first, those used in the lumber camps and, second, hand tools. [...] Clothing is limited mainly to footwear and includes items like early leather boots (bottes sauvages) worn in Quebec, caulk boots from British Columbia and different kinds of crampons worn on the boots of men working in the forests in the winter.
1987
"Just the other day, in The Vancouver Sun, they said they wouldn't touch senior citizen locations. Fifty years ago, when I climbed mountainsides in my cork boots with a peavey over my shoulder, I wouldn't have cared."
1994
The proud day they filled their boom with sawn logs, they stopped to listen to a strange sound -- a record of "Casey Jones" that filtered across to them from a boat on the other side of the Inlet. Without a word, they grabbed each other and started dancing to the distant tune, their cork boots pounding happily on the boom logs, and Growler jumping around their feet.
2005
Logging and northern Vancouver Island have been pretty much inseparable since the invention of the caulk boot and cross-cut saw. But the forest industry and the communities that have come to rely on it have taken some big hits in the North Island riding since the last provincial election.
References
- Avis (1956)
- DAE
- DARE
- COD-2
Images
Image 1: Cork boot from Shoe King (Hamilton, Ontario).
Source: http://laci.hostcentric.com/c0146.html (5 May 2014)
Chart 1: Internet Domain Search, 13 Mar. 2014 ("cork boot" was not feasibly searchable)
