A.Word.A.Day --windlass

A.Word.A.Day

About | Media | Search | Contact

Home

Today's Word

Archives

Apr 28, 2025

This week’s theme
Words that aren’t what they appear to be

This week’s words
windlass

Illustration: Anu Garg + AI

Previous week’s theme
Dickensian eponyms

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Have you ever stopped to think that some words are cleverly disguised? A pineapple is neither pine nor is it an apple.
Rush hour is the slowest time to be on the road.
Fireflies are not flies (they are beetles), and koala bears are not bears (they are marsupials).
San Francisco’s Main Street is not the main street (it’s named after Charles Main, a chandler.)

Most words give us clues about what they mean. Some don’t. Most of the time we can get a sense of a term by its spelling, but not always. This week’s words are like that. For example, in today’s word windlass there’s no wind (and certainly no lass. And no airy-fairy). Same with the remaining four words this week: no monopoly, no lust, no city, and no pies, though at first glance you might think otherwise.

windlass

PRONUNCIATION:

(WIHND-luhs)

MEANING:

noun: A device for lifting or hauling, using a rope or cable wound around a cylinder.
verb tr.: To extract, lift, or bring forth with deliberate, steady effort.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Old Norse vindass, from vinda (to wind) + ass (pole). Earliest documented use: 1294.

USAGE:

“We talk about our lives, dreams we had, and what we want to do in the future. It is as if the round tower is windlassing stories out of us.”
Rosita Boland; The Martello Tower and the Magic Carpet of the Irish Sea; Irish Times (Dublin); Jul 13, 2015.

“As though the words were being windlassed out of him.”
Rudyard Kipling; Captains Courageous; Doubleday; 1897.

See more usage examples of windlass in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. -Terry Pratchett, novelist (Apr 28 1948-2015)

We need your help

Help us continue to spread the magic of words to readers everywhere

Donate

Subscriber Services
Awards | Stats | Links | Privacy Policy
Contribute | Advertise