block [ME] In the early Middle Ages a block was a log or tree stump. The word came from French bloc, borrowed from Middle Dutch, which English readopted in a different sense as bloc, ‘a group of countries that have formed an alliance’, in the early 20th century. By the late Middle Ages a block was often a large lump of wood on which chopping, hammering, and beheading were performed. We refer to an executioner’s block when we use the phrase to put your head (or neck) on the block [M16th].

A block of buildings, bounded by four streets, dates from the late 18th century in North America. This use has given rise to numerous popular phrases: the new kid on the block [1970s], and the person believed to have been around the block a few times (to have a lot of experience). It also gave us the blockbuster. Although this now means ‘a great commercial success’, in the 1940s it was a huge aerial bomb capable of destroying a whole block of streets.

Block has meant head, as in to knock someone’s block off, since the 17th century. In Australia to do or lose your block [E20th] is to lose your temper. See also loggerhead.