The word cloak shares roots with clock
Medieval Latin called a traveler's cape a bell-shaped garment—and that bell gave us both cloak and clock. From Roman citizenship togas to Aztec elite capes and Aboriginal possum-skin wraps, the sleeveless outer layer has always signaled weather, rank, and story.
A cloak is a loose garment worn over other clothing, usually outdoors, serving much the same protective role as an overcoat. It typically fastens at the neck or shoulder, runs from hip length to the ankle, may include a hood, and is almost always sleeveless. Christian clerics wear cope-like cloaks as liturgical vestments. The English word derives from Old North French cloque, meaning bell, via Medieval Latin clocca for a traveler's cape—literally a bell shape, linking cloak to clock.
Ancient Greeks and Romans wore himations and pallia; the Roman toga, allegedly originating with King Numa Pompilius around 715 to 672 BC, marked citizenship and magisterial office. Aztec elites wore the tilmàtli, with the most elaborate reserved for high priests, emperors, Eagle warriors, and Jaguar knights. Aboriginal Australians in southeast Australia wore possum-skin cloaks etched with personal symbols; western Australians used kangaroo-pelt buka cloaks that doubled as blankets or drums.
In Western formal dress, opera cloaks of wool, cashmere, velvet, or satin protect fine evening fabrics from weather where a coat would crush them. The King James Bible records Jesus urging surrender of both coat and cloak. In fantasy literature and stagecraft, cloaks became shorthand for magic and menace: Bela Lugosi's Dracula costume fixed the image so firmly that nearly every later Count wears one.
Figuratively, a cloak hides anything concealed. Science fiction franchises such as Star Trek popularized cloaking devices; a limited real-world demonstration occurred in 2006. The phrase cloak and dagger now denotes espionage and secret crime, and even inspired the Marvel vigilante duo Cloak and Dagger.
Source: Cloak
