rock

Speculative, uncertain. OED states that the word may be native English (though unattested in the OE period), or is a ME borrowing from one of Middle Dutch roc, rock(en) (<*rok); Middle Low German rocke, Old High German roc, rocho (etc.); Middle High German rocke; Old Icelandic rokkr (cf. Old Swedish rokker, Old Danish rooc), all meaning 'distaff'. Without further evidence the matter cannot be definitively settled; the wide distribution suggests a native English reflex may have existed, but admittedly the earliest citation, roc, is of the late thirteenth century. The word also existed in various Romance languages, where it is generally held to be an early borrowing of Germanic *rokko or similar; such a word in Frankish (or OHG roc(o) + suffix is probably the source of French rochet 'spindle, bobbin' (see rocket 2). See OED 2nd edition s.v. rock n.2 for further discussion. Equated in some glossarial texts with Anglo-French conoil (q.v.).