tweezers
pronunciation
How to pronounce tweezers in British English:
UK [ˈtwi:zəz]
How to pronounce tweezers in American English:
US [ˈtwizərz]
Word Origin
- tweezers
- tweezers: [17] French étui denotes a small case for carrying personal articles, small tools and the like (it was descended from Old French estuier ‘keep, shut up, imprison’). English adopted it in the early 17th century as etui or, anglicized, as etwee. The plural of this came to be used (like scissors) for a single article, and it did not take long for etweese to be apprehended as a singular noun.The next step in the word’s transformation was the loss of its first syllable: hence, tweeze. This still meant ‘case for small instruments’, and the plural tweezes began to be used for the instruments themselves – typically implements of personal adornment, such as combs, scissors and small pincers for pulling out hairs. By the 1650s tweezes had been extended to tweezers (perhaps on the model of scissors), and this was being applied specifically to the pincers – as it still is today.
- tweezers (n.)
- "small pincers, diminutive tongs," 1650s, extended from tweezes, plural of tweeze "case for tweezers" (1620s), a shortening of etweese, considered as plural of etwee (1610s) "a small case," from French étui "small case" (see etui). Sense transferred from the case to the implement inside it. For form, compare trousers from trouzes.
Example
- 1. Using tweezers , they preserved each piece between sheets of glass .
- 2. They use metal tweezers and feathered sticks as well as tongs that they vibrate to get the wax out of your ears .
- 3. I will say dr. 6972 has the most peculiar array of tweezers I 've ever seen , but maybe he 's into tying flies or something , or gets lots of splinters doing something weird with wood .
- 4. You can 't separate a single water molecule from its fellows with a tiny pair of tweezers , so isolating it in a carbon cage may reveal new secrets about the intrinsic nature of a lone h2o .
- 5. Invest in a pair of noise hair trimmers or tweezers and make sure you always keep those puppies where they should be - in your nose !