anvil
/ˈæn.vəl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.04 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A heavy iron block used in the blacksmithing trade as a surface upon which metal can be struck and shaped.
noun
The incus bone in the middle ear.
noun
The non-moving surface of a micrometer against which the item to be measured is placed.
noun
A horizontal-topped mass of cloud, shaped like a blacksmith's anvil, that forms before a thunderstorm.
Example Sentences
- "My heart is as an anvil unto sorrow, Which beats upon it like the Cyclops’ hammers […]"
- "I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus, The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool, With open mouth swallowing a tailor’s news […]"
- "1794, William Blake, “The Tyger,” lines 15-16, What the anvil? what dread grasp / Dare its deadly terrors clasp?"
- "Thus at the flaming forge of life / Our fortunes must be wrought; / Thus on its sounding anvil shaped / Each burning deed and thought!"
- "With an anvil-ding / And with fire in him forge thy will / Or rather, rather then, stealing as Spring / Through him, melt him but master him still: [...]"
- "I Have anvil’d out this Iron Age, Which I commit, not to your patronage, But skill and Art […]"
Etymology
From Middle English anfilt, anvelt, anfelt, from late Old English anfilt, anfilte, anfealt, from earlier onfilti (“anvil”), from Proto-West Germanic *anafalt (compare Middle Dutch anvilte, Low German Anfilts, Anefilt, Old High German anafalz), compound of *ana (“on”) + *falt (“beaten”) (compare German falzen (“to groove, fold, welt”), Swedish dialectal filta (“to beat”)), from Proto-Indo-European *pelh₂-t- (“shaken, beaten”) (compare Middle Irish lethar (“leather”), Latin pellō (“to beat, strike”), Ancient Greek πάλλω (pállō, “to toss, brandish”)), enlargement of Proto-Indo-European *pelh₂- (“to stir, move”). More at felon.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: anfilt, *anafalt, *pelh₂-t-, *pelh₂-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈæn.vəl/
- British English: /ˈæn.vɪl/