Etymology

pawl

P3A1W4L1

Today it means: A pivoted catch designed to fall into a notch on a ratchet wheel so as to allow movement in only one direction (e.g. on a windlass or in a clock mechanism), or alternatively to move the wheel in one direction. Full definition →

Dutch pal ← French pal
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The story

  1. French · derived frompal“stake”
  2. Dutch · derived frompal“catch (mechanism)”
  3. English todaypawl

17th c., perhaps from Low German or Dutch pal (“catch (mechanism)”), or from either French pal (“stake”) or épaule (“shoulder”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.