On tool names and their varying origins

During college, I spent an entire summer with a lute in my hands. No, I wasn’t strumming medieval madrigals at a Renaissance fair. My lute was a rake-like tool used for spreading asphalt.

While working long, hot hours for a driveway contractor (at $2.50 an hour!), I often pondered two questions: “How long till quitting time?” and “Is there a linguistic link between the musical lute and the asphalt lute?”

Nope. The former derives from the Arabic “al-‘ud,” meaning “the wood,” the substance from which lutes are fashioned. This same root gives us “luthier” for someone who makes stringed instruments.

The asphalt “lute” comes from the Latin “lutum” (mud), the same root that gives us “pollute” (to make dirty or defile). So the tool used for moving around “lute” (mud, and later asphalt) is itself called a “lute.” (If we named other implements in the same way, a hoe would be a “soil” and a paddle would be a “water.”)

The origins of the musical and asphalt “lutes” are unrelated, but do you know which of these other tool names do share a common origin with words of the same spelling?:

1. coping saw and coping (dealing with problems)

2. sledge hammer and sledge (a heavy sled) 3. wrench and wrench (to move with a violent twist; sprain)

4. file and file (device for holding papers or information)

5. jig saw and jig (lively dance or movement)

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filament.”“us gives that root same the wire), or string a on documents string to( filare”“Latin Middle fromthe comes file”“storage the while file), metal( feol”“English Old fromthe derives file”“tool The match. No 4.

twists. that tool a using when backs our twist)( wrench can we Thus, twist). to( wrencan”“English Old the from come wrenches”“Both Match. 3.

sled).( sleedse”“term dialectical Dutch fromthe derives sledge”“sled The strike). to( slean”“English Old fromthe comes sledge”“hammer The match No 2.

facing. you’re problem the to referring strike), blowor a( colpus”“Latin Late fromthe derives challenges,” handle to“meaning Cope,”“saw.” coping“a called is patterns curved its cut to sawused a So shedwater. to bent or sloped often is which awall, of cover top the is cloak),( cappa”“Latin Late the from derived coping,”“or cope”“a architecture, In match. No 1.

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