Why are washers called washers?
May 20, 2024 8:54 AM Subscribe
Where do the names nuts, bolts, and washers come from?
I’m sitting putting together a little project and I realized I’ve never known nor questioned where the names for hardware come from.
I’m sitting putting together a little project and I realized I’ve never known nor questioned where the names for hardware come from.
Oxford English Dictionary says:
posted by ssg at 9:52 AM on May 20 [1 favorite]
- Washer is unknown (they have citations back to 1346, so it's been around for a while)
- Nut is the same word as the food, so presumably the mechanical sense comes from the foodstuff. From German a long time ago.
- Bolt comes from crossbow bolt, meaning arrow, or bolt for locking a door. These come from German (also the same word as a bolt of fabric meaning a roll of fabric), unknown beyond that.
posted by ssg at 9:52 AM on May 20 [1 favorite]
Here's a bright person making some guesses on Quora about the origin of "washer," which isn't much, but is about as good as it gets, 700 years into the use of this word.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:59 AM on May 20 [1 favorite]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:59 AM on May 20 [1 favorite]
There are "cap nuts" aka "acorn nuts" which look similar to their namesake, so that may be part of it.
posted by xedrik at 11:48 AM on May 20 [1 favorite]
posted by xedrik at 11:48 AM on May 20 [1 favorite]
Best answer: For washer they have a couple theories, the obvious that it's an agent noun for wash (one who washes) but they don't love that so they would also believe it could be some relative of vise.
The etymonline entry for "vise" says that in Middle English it meant a "device like a screw or winch for bending a crossbow or catapult; spiral staircase; the screw of a press; twisted tie for fastening a hood under the chin", which does help a theoretical relationship sound more plausible. (I assume there are reasons related to phonetic transformation patters for why "winch" wouldn't make sense as a potential ancestor, but both "winch" and "vise" apparently derive from hypothesized proto-Indo European roots meaning "to bend, curve" or "to turn, twist, bend".)
posted by trig at 12:38 PM on May 20
The etymonline entry for "vise" says that in Middle English it meant a "device like a screw or winch for bending a crossbow or catapult; spiral staircase; the screw of a press; twisted tie for fastening a hood under the chin", which does help a theoretical relationship sound more plausible. (I assume there are reasons related to phonetic transformation patters for why "winch" wouldn't make sense as a potential ancestor, but both "winch" and "vise" apparently derive from hypothesized proto-Indo European roots meaning "to bend, curve" or "to turn, twist, bend".)
posted by trig at 12:38 PM on May 20
There are "cap nuts" aka "acorn nuts" which look similar to their namesake, so that may be part of it.
Acorn nuts are way harder to make and are a relatively recent (late 1800s) development. The name for nuts was well established before acorn nuts came on the scene.
posted by Mitheral at 1:23 PM on May 20
Acorn nuts are way harder to make and are a relatively recent (late 1800s) development. The name for nuts was well established before acorn nuts came on the scene.
posted by Mitheral at 1:23 PM on May 20
Nut is the same word as the food, so presumably the mechanical sense comes from the foodstuff.
Count me as chagrined that "nut" (and doughnut) didn't come to us by way of "nought". That's just too perfect, and I don't see why a hardware nuts would have metaphorical connection to food nuts. If I didn't know better, I'd be tempted to second guess the OED.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 3:16 PM on May 20 [2 favorites]
Count me as chagrined that "nut" (and doughnut) didn't come to us by way of "nought". That's just too perfect, and I don't see why a hardware nuts would have metaphorical connection to food nuts. If I didn't know better, I'd be tempted to second guess the OED.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 3:16 PM on May 20 [2 favorites]
Washer might be Old Norse-derived; some longships used iron (or copper) "washers" (roves).
[Michael McCarthy's neat Ships' Fastenings: From Sewn Boat to Steamship has a chapter on clinker (lapstrake) construction.]
posted by Iris Gambol at 4:32 PM on May 20 [2 favorites]
[Michael McCarthy's neat Ships' Fastenings: From Sewn Boat to Steamship has a chapter on clinker (lapstrake) construction.]
posted by Iris Gambol at 4:32 PM on May 20 [2 favorites]
I don't see why a hardware nuts would have metaphorical connection to food nuts.
I think it's likely through the meaning of nut as a small bit of something, which the OED traces back further than the hardware meaning (they say "a small knob of butter, meat, etc.").
posted by ssg at 4:53 PM on May 20 [4 favorites]
I think it's likely through the meaning of nut as a small bit of something, which the OED traces back further than the hardware meaning (they say "a small knob of butter, meat, etc.").
posted by ssg at 4:53 PM on May 20 [4 favorites]
Best answer: It's worth bearing in mind that nuts and bolts in their modern, ubiquitous form are a much more recent phenomenon than the words we use for them.
There are examples of threaded nuts and bolts going back several hundred years, but for most of that time, they were things that had to be painstakingly hand made, with each nut being unique to the bolt it was made for -- so they were neither cheap nor common items, and not used anywhere where they would not have been absolutely essential.
It was not until the development of the screw cutting lathe, invented by Henry Maudslay in 1800, that it became possible to mass-produce threaded fasteners. Even then, nuts and bolts from different sources remained mostly incompatible with each other until Joseph Whitworth, who had begun his career working under Maudslay, devised the first standardised thread system, published in 1841.
My understanding is that bolt used to be a much broader term, roughly synonymous with rod or shaft. Similarly nut was roughly synonymous with knob. They were general terms, rather than specifically describing threaded fasteners. Other usages such as door and crossbow bolts are remnants of that broader meaning.
If you'd never seen such things before, you might describe a bolt and nut as "a shaft, with a knob that goes on the end". And that may be all that someone in the 1400s meant when they described such things as bolts and nuts.
posted by automatronic at 4:26 AM on May 21 [9 favorites]
There are examples of threaded nuts and bolts going back several hundred years, but for most of that time, they were things that had to be painstakingly hand made, with each nut being unique to the bolt it was made for -- so they were neither cheap nor common items, and not used anywhere where they would not have been absolutely essential.
It was not until the development of the screw cutting lathe, invented by Henry Maudslay in 1800, that it became possible to mass-produce threaded fasteners. Even then, nuts and bolts from different sources remained mostly incompatible with each other until Joseph Whitworth, who had begun his career working under Maudslay, devised the first standardised thread system, published in 1841.
My understanding is that bolt used to be a much broader term, roughly synonymous with rod or shaft. Similarly nut was roughly synonymous with knob. They were general terms, rather than specifically describing threaded fasteners. Other usages such as door and crossbow bolts are remnants of that broader meaning.
If you'd never seen such things before, you might describe a bolt and nut as "a shaft, with a knob that goes on the end". And that may be all that someone in the 1400s meant when they described such things as bolts and nuts.
posted by automatronic at 4:26 AM on May 21 [9 favorites]
Mod note: We had wondered about this also, so it's been added to the sidebar and Best Of blog, thank you for asking!
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 7:58 AM on May 24 [2 favorites]
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 7:58 AM on May 24 [2 favorites]
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For washer they have a couple theories, the obvious that it's an agent noun for wash (one who washes) but they don't love that so they would also believe it could be some relative of vise.
Nut is "from some fancied resemblance" to an acorn or whatever.
Bolt is from a short arrow with a heavy head.
posted by aubilenon at 9:24 AM on May 20 [2 favorites]