Etymology

pulley

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Today it means: One of the simple machines; a sheave, a wheel with a grooved rim, in which a pulled rope or chain lifts an object (more useful when two or more pulleys are used together, as in a block and tackle arrangement, such that a small force moving through a greater distance can exert a larger force through a smaller distance). Full definition →

Middle English puly ← Old French poulie ← Vulgar Latin *polidia
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*kʷel-“to turn”
  2. Ancient Greek · derived from*πολίδιον“little pivot”
  3. Vulgar Latin · derived from*polidia
  4. Old French · derived frompoulie
  5. Middle English · inherited frompuly
  6. English todaypulley

Inherited from Middle English puly, poley, from Old French poulie, polie (“a pulley, windlass”), from Vulgar Latin *polidia, plural mistaken for the feminine of neuter *polidium, from Ancient Greek *πολίδιον (*polídion, “little pivot”), diminutive of πόλος (pólos, “pivot, hinge, axis”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to turn”). Associated with pull (verb) by folk etymology.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*kʷel- all →

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.