Etymology

crowbar

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Today it means: An iron or steel bar, often with a flattened end which may also be hook-shaped, to be used as a lever to manually force things apart. Full definition →

English bar ← Middle English barre ← Old French barre
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*gerh₂-der.?
  2. Proto-Germanic*krēanądeverb.
  3. Proto-Germanic*krēǭ
  4. Proto-West Germanic*krāā
  5. Old Englishcrāwe
  6. Middle Englishcrowe
  7. Englishcrow
  8. Vulgar Latin*barra
  9. Old Frenchbarre
  10. Middle Englishbarre
  11. Englishbar
  12. English todaycrowbar

From crow (“crow (bird)" also "metal lever, crowbar”) + bar, probably because the forked end looks like a crow's foot.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.