Clinkery

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. A works or factory where hard, vitrified clinker bricks are manufactured by firing clay at high temperatures
2. A kiln site or plant that produces dense, glassy clinker material, often used for paving or building
3. The yard or facility in which hard-burnt bricks known as clinkers are made and stacked for sale

Etymology: "Clinkery" is a plain formation: the noun "clinker" with the suffix "-y", meaning "made from clinker." The suffix is the common English "-y," which turns a noun into an adjective meaning "having the qualities of" or "made of" the noun, as in "stony" or "leathery." The base word "clinker" is the part with the more interesting history. It came into English from Dutch or a related Low German source, where it referred to the hard, fused residue left when coal or other fuel burns at high heat. Its ultimate Germanic roots relate to the sound of something striking something else, which fits the ringing, hard quality of the slag. Over time the term came to be used for any hard, vitrified lump, such as the hardest bricks in a kiln or the glassy waste from a furnace. Since "clinkery" was formed directly from "clinker" plus "-y," it describes things that look, feel, or consist of that sort of fused, glassy residue.