anvil
pronunciation
How to pronounce anvil in British English:
UK [ˈænvɪl]
How to pronounce anvil in American English:
US [ˈænvɪl]
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- Noun:
- a heavy block of iron or steel on which hot metals are shaped by hammering
- the ossicle between the malleus and the stapes
Word Origin
- anvil
- anvil: [OE] Etymologically, an anvil is ‘something on which you hit something else’. The Old English word was anfīlte, which came from a prehistoric West Germanic compound formed from *ana ‘on’ and a verbal component meaning ‘hit’ (which was also the source of English felt, Latin pellere ‘hit’, and Swedish dialect filta ‘hit’). It is possible that the word may originally have been a loan-translation based on the Latin for ‘anvil’, incūs; for this too was a compound, based on in ‘in’ and the stem of the verb cūdere ‘hit’ (related to English hew).=> appeal
- anvil (n.)
- Old English anfilt, a Proto-Germanic compound (cognates: Middle Dutch anvilt, Old High German anafalz, Dutch aanbeeld, Danish ambolt "anvil") from *ana- "on" + *filtan "hit" (see felt (n.)). The ear bone so called from 1680s. Anvil Chorus is based on the "Gypsy Song" that opens Act II of Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Il Trovatore," first performed in Teatro Apollo, Rome, Jan. 19, 1853.
Example
- 1. Africa could be the anvil on which a new chinese foreign policy begins to be forged .
- 2. She pointed out the anvil .
- 3. Nut-cracking , for example , is a complex skill that involves placing a nut between an anvil stone and a hammer stone and coordinating the movements to hit the nut just right .
- 4. Life is like the anvil , the more to be beat , the more able to spark .
- 5. Barack obama stands in a corner of the goal mouth , his leg shackled to a heavy anvil labelled " the economy " .