piston
pronunciation
How to pronounce piston in British English:
UK [ˈpɪstən]
How to pronounce piston in American English:
US [ˈpɪstən]
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- Noun:
- mechanical device that has a plunging or thrusting motion
Word Origin
- piston
- piston: [18] The Latin verb pinsere meant ‘beat, pound’. Its past participial stem pist- formed the basis for the noun pistillum ‘grinding stick, pestle’ (from which English gets pistil ‘female flower part’ [18], an allusion to its shape). This passed into Italian as pestello, from which English gets pestle [14]. From the Italian stem pest- was formed pestone ‘rammer’, whose variant pistone gave French piston – whence English piston.=> pestle, pistil
- piston (n.)
- 1704, from French piston, from Middle French piston "large pestle," from Old Italian pistone "a piston," variant of pestone "a pestle," from pestare "to pound," from Late Latin pistare, frequentative of Latin pinsere (past participle pistus) "to pound" (see pestle). As a verb from 1930.
Example
- 1. The pressure created by the combustion of the fuel drives the piston downward .
- 2. It can rotate at both ends so that its angle can change as the piston moves and the crankshaft rotates .
- 3. To understand why , imagine trying to drive a piston using a container full of heated gas .
- 4. He noted that in 2008 car production was disrupted when a supplier was unable to deliver piston rings .
- 5. As the piston nears the top of the cylinder , the cycle repeats with step 1 .