The story
- Ancient Greek · derived fromπολύσπαστον“compound pulley”
- Latin · borrowed frompolyspaston“hoisting-tackle with many pulleys”
- English todaypolyspast
From Latin polyspaston (“hoisting-tackle with many pulleys”), from Ancient Greek πολύσπαστον (polúspaston, “compound pulley”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.