Chalkboard

When I was a child, we called the board at the front of our classroom a “blackboard”. Traditionally people wrote with chalk on large pieces of slate. Slate is black, so they called it a blackboard. Later people made boards painted black for blackboards.

During my childhood, many schools started using dark green paint on the blackboards. Since the boards were not black anymore, people started to call them “chalkboards”.

Now some people still say blackboard, but most people say chalkboard.

Sometimes old words lose their meaning and we keep using them. Sometimes old words lose their meaning and we make new words.

I like the word chalkboard because it explains how we use the board. I think the color is not so important.

Tags: black, chalk, chalkboard, green, paint, school, slate