Clocking

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The procedure for systematically measuring time intervals The formal act of noting the times of arrival or departure by employees The technique of capturing and recording performance metrics in various circumstances
2. The act of determining the duration between events using a timekeeping device ; noting when workers start and finish their tasks to monitor attendance ; measuring how fast or efficiently something is operating or moving
3. Using a device or method to assess time intervals precisely ; registering employee working periods by clock or system ; capturing real-time data about speed or output in an activity

Etymology: The verb "clocking" comes from "clock," but the noun behind it is older than the timepiece. Medieval Latin "clocca" meant "bell," and the word spread from Celtic speakers into Old Dutch and Middle Dutch, where it also meant "bell" and then "clock." English borrowed the Middle Dutch form "clokke" around 1370, so the thing that rang the hours came to be named for the bell that rang them. Long before mechanical clocks, a bell did the telling of time. The verb tracks the timing sense of the noun. Its meaning of measuring events precisely, such as recording an athlete's or a car's time, grows from the idea of keeping exact time on a mechanism that ticks and strikes. A separate English word, "clock" meaning the seed head of a dandelion, comes from a children's game. A child blows at the fluffy head and counts the puffs needed to clear it, each puff supposedly marking an hour of the day. Its origin is uncertain, but its designs may once have looked bell-shaped, linking it to the same bell root.

Synonyms: timing, measuring, recording