Etymology

thumbscrew

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Today it means: A screw that is designed to be turned with the thumb and fingers, thus requiring no screwdriver or spanner (wrench). Full definition →

English screw ← Middle English scrue ← Old French escruveinflu.
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The story

  1. Englishthumb
  2. Proto-Indo-European*(s)krebʰ-der.?
  3. Latinscrōfa
  4. Old Frenchescroue
  5. Old Frenchescruveinflu.
  6. Middle Englishscrue
  7. Englishscrew
  8. English todaythumbscrew

From thumb + screw.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.