Tool [
Merriam Webster]
1 : a handheld device that aids in accomplishing a task
2 : something (as an instrument or apparatus) used in performing an operation or necessary in the practice of a vocation or profession <a scholar's books are his tools>
Rock [
Merriam Webster]
2 : a concreted mass of stony material; also : broken pieces of such masses
Q: Where is the line drawn between a
rock as a rock laying on the ground and a
rock as a tool when used by someone to hammer a stick into the ground by hand for example? Is the rock only a tool when used as a tool? But there is a noun use for the word tool not just a verb? Would the unmodified rock be a rock before use, become a tool during use, and then revert back to just being a "normal" rock after use? Or is a unmodified rock always a tool? That doesn't seem right.
Before I looked up the definition of tool I thought a tool had to be modified, machined, or manufactured in some way. Like a rock is just a stone but once we
chip off an edge then it becomes a stone-tool. But it appears that modification is not required.
Thoughts?