Shalk

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic term for a servant, attendant, or man of humble standing in older English writing
2. A dated word used in old texts to mean a lowly servant or a plain fellow of modest station
3. An obsolete noun referring to a man of common rank, often one who serves another person

Etymology: "Shalk" is an archaic English word for a servant or man, and it is a close relative of the German "Schalk," which today means "joker" or "rogue." That gap in meaning is the surprising part. In Old English, "sċealc" referred to a servant, but also to a soldier or sailor, and in Middle English the word appeared as "schalk" and "scalk," still carrying the sense of a serving man. The word traces back to Proto-Germanic "skalkaz," which meant "servant" or "knight," and further back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to cleave, separate, part, divide." Gothic "skalks" also meant "servant," which shows how widely the sense was shared among the early Germanic languages. The shift toward "joker" and "rogue" happened in other branches of the family. Old Norse "skálkr" could mean "rogue" as well as "servant," and German "Schalk" came to mean a jester or mischievous person. English kept the older sense of a servant and let the rogue sense drop away.