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Anvil

//ˈæn.vəl// noun, verb

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A heavy iron block used in the blacksmithing trade as a surface upon which metal can be struck and shaped.

    "My heart is as an anvil unto sorrow, Which beats upon it like the Cyclops’ hammers […]"

  2. 2
    a heavy block of iron or steel on which hot metals are shaped by hammering wordnet
  3. 3
    The incus bone in the middle ear.
  4. 4
    a small bone in the middle ear between the malleus and the stapes wordnet
  5. 5
    A stone or other hard surface used by a bird for breaking the shells of snails.
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  1. 6
    The non-moving surface of a micrometer against which the item to be measured is placed.
  2. 7
    A horizontal-topped mass of cloud, shaped like a blacksmith's anvil, that forms before a thunderstorm.
Verb
  1. 1
    To fashion on, or as if on, an anvil. figuratively, often, transitive

    "I Have anvil’d out this Iron Age, Which I commit, not to your patronage, But skill and Art […]"

Etymology

Etymology 1

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.

Etymology 2

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.

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