Etymology

breastwheel

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Today it means: A water wheel where the stream of water strikes neither so high as in the overshot wheel, nor so low as in the undershot, but generally at about half the height of the wheel, being kept in contact with it by the breasting. The water acts on the floatboards partly by impulse, partly by its weight. Full definition →

English wheel ← Middle English whel ← Old English hwēol
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic*breustą
  2. Proto-West Germanic*breust
  3. Old Englishbrēost
  4. Middle Englishbrest
  5. Englishbreast
  6. Proto-Indo-European*kʷelh₁-redup.
  7. Proto-Indo-European*kʷekʷléh₂
  8. Proto-Germanic*hweulō
  9. Old Englishhwēol
  10. Middle Englishwhel
  11. Englishwheel
  12. English todaybreastwheel

From breast + wheel.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.