2226: balk Jan 18, 2021

The word 'block' these days pretty obviously means 'keep from moving', originally from a physical source, but there are other words like that too. 'Balk' for instance originally referred to a partition, or especially unplowed land on a field. The sense of being blocked by an obstacle then led to the modern sense of to make a blunder or to hesitate. It is even related to 'balcony', originally from the sense of 'beam', as was the case with 'block'.