hammer | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

55 entries found.

bone knob on either side of the human ankle, 1690s, from Latin malleolus, diminutive of malleus "a hammer" (from PIE root *mele- "to crush, grind"). Anatomical use is said to date to Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564). Related: Malleolar.

Klondike

tributary of the Yukon River in northwestern Canada, from Kutchin (Athabaskan) throndiuk, said to mean "hammer-water" and to be a reference to the practice of driving stakes into the riverbed to support fish traps. Scene of a gold rush after 1896. Related: Klondiker.

ding (v.)

1819, "to sound as metal when struck," possibly abstracted from ding-dong (1550s), which is of imitative origin. The meaning "to deal heavy blows" is c. 1300, probably from Old Norse dengja "to hammer," perhaps also imitative. Meaning "dent" is 1960s. Related: Dinged; dinging.

ratatouille (n.)

Provençal dish of mixed vegetables simmered in olive oil, 1877, from French ratatouille (19c.). The first element is of uncertain etymology, the second is evidently touiller "to stir up," which Ayto writes was "applied, often disparagingly, to any stew," and which Gamillscheg writes is ultimately from Latin tudes "hammer."

incus (n.)

middle ear bone, 1660s, from Latin incus "anvil," from incudere "to forge with a hammer," from in- "in" + cudere "to strike, beat," from PIE *kau-do-, suffixed form of root *kau- "to hew, strike" (see hew). The bone so called by Belgian anatomist Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564).

repousse (adj.)

in reference to a type of decorative pattern, "formed in relief" by means of the hammer, "beaten from the under or reverse side," 1852, from French repoussé, past-participle adjective from repousser "to thrust back, beat back," from re- "back, again" (see re-) + pousser "to push" (see push (v.)). Related: Repoussoir.

battledore (n.)

mid-15c., "bat-like implement used in washing clothes," of unknown origin, perhaps from Old Provençal batedor, Spanish batidor "beater, bat," from batir "to beat;" perhaps blended with Middle English betel "hammer, mallet" (see beetle (n.2)). As a type of racket used in a game, from 1590s, from similarity of shape.

pinwheel (n.)

also pin-wheel, 1690s, "a wheel in the striking train of a clock in which pins are fixed to lift the hammer," from pin (n.) + wheel (n.). The fireworks sense of "long paper case filled with a combustible composition and wound spirally about a disk so that, when supported vertically and lit, it revolves in a wheel of fire" is from 1869.

pulsation (n.)

early 15c., pulsacioun, "pulsing of the blood, throbbing," from Latin pulsationem (nominative pulsatio) "a beating or striking," noun of action from past-participle stem of pulsare "to beat, strike, push against' hammer, keep hitting," figuratively "drive forth, disturb, disquiet," frequentative of pellere (past participle pulsus) "to beat, strike" (from PIE root *pel- (5) "to thrust, strike, drive").

Molotov

name taken by Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Skriabin (1890-1986), Soviet minister of foreign affairs 1939-1949, from Russian molot "hammer," cognate with Latin malleus, from PIE root *mele- "to crush, grind." Molotov cocktail "glass bottle filled with flammable liquid and a means of ignition" (1940) is a term from Russo-Finnish War (used and satirically named by the Finns).

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