anvil

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*pelh₂-“to stir, move”
2. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*pelh₂-t-“shaken, beaten”
3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*anafalt
4. Old English · inherited fromanfilt
5. Middle English · inherited fromanfilt
6. English todayanvil

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.

Words from the same roots