anvil
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
Middle English anfilt, anvelt, from late Old English anfilte, anfealt, from earlier onfilti, from Proto-Germanic *anafeltaz (compare Middle Dutch anvilte, Low German Anfilts, Anefilt, Old High German anafalz), compound of *ana ‘on’ + *feltaz (“beaten”) (compare German falzen (“to groove, fold, welt”), Swedish dialect filta ‘to beat'), from Proto-Indo-European *pelhₐ-t- ‘shaken, beaten’ (compare Irish lethar (“leather”), Latin pultō, pulsō (“to beat, strike”), Ancient Greek pállein ‘to toss, brandish’), enlargement of *pelhₐ- ‘to stir, move’. More at felon.
[edit] Noun
anvil (plural anvils)
- A heavy iron block used in the blacksmithing trade as a surface upon which metal can be struck and shaped.
- (anatomy) An incus bone in the inner ear.
[edit] Translations
block used in blacksmithing
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bone in inner ear
[edit] Quotations
- iron
- 1794, William Blake, The Tyger, lines 15-16 (for syntax)
- What the anvil? what dread grasp
- Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
