cloak [LME] The source of cloak was Old French cloke, a variant of cloche meaning ‘bell’ and, because of its bell-like shape, ‘cloak’. The ultimate origin is medieval Latin clocca ‘bell’. See also clock. The expression cloak-and-dagger is used of plotting, intrigue, and espionage. As cloak-and-sword, a translation of the French phrase de cape et d’épée, it dates from the early 19th century. It originally referred to stories and plays featuring intrigue or melodramatic adventure, in which the main characters tended to wear a cloak and a dagger or a sword. The idea is, however, older: Chaucer wrote of ‘the smiler with the knife beneath his cloak’.