wedge

en-noun

wedge (countable and uncountable, plural wedges)

From Middle English wegge (“wedge”), from Old English weċġ (“wedge”), from Proto-West Germanic *wagi, from Proto-Germanic *wagjaz.

Stick a wedge under the door, will you? It keeps blowing shut.

One of the simple machines; a piece of material, such as metal or wood, thick at one edge and tapered to a thin edge at the other for insertion in a narrow crevice, used for splitting, tightening, securing, or levering.


handspike

handspikes (plural)
hand-spike (alternative)

I would not take a rood of land from Frederic to be appointed to a man-of-war to-morrow morning, for I looked on it as his (God grant it may be long ere he touch it!) ever since I was the height of a handspike.

1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXIII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 292:

“Man the capstan! Blood and thunder!—jump!”—was the next command, and the crew sprang for the handspikes.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 22”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

Then he rapped on the door with a bit of stick like a handspike that he carried...

1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

A bar or lever, generally of wood, used in a windlass or capstan, for heaving anchor, and, in modified forms, for various purposes.


screw

From Middle English screw, scrue (“screw”); apparently, despite the difference in meaning, from Old French escroue (“nut, cylindrical socket, screwhole”), from Latin scrōfa (“female pig”) through comparison with the corkscrew shape of a pig's penis. There is also the Old French escruve (“screw”), from Old Dutch *scrūva ("screw"; whence Middle Dutch schruyve (“screw”)), which probably influenced or conflated with the aforementioned, resulting in the Middle English word.
more on the etymology of screw
Old French escroue (whence Medieval Latin scrofa (“nut, screwhole”)), is believed to be an adaptation of Latin scrōfa (“sow, female pig”); but this development is not found in other Romance languages. (For change in meaning, compare also Spanish puerca, Portuguese porca, both ‘sow; screw nut’, and is based on the fact that a boar's penis has a screw-like tip, making the sow's vulva equivalent to a screw nut by analogy).
Old Dutch *scrūva possibly derives from Proto-Germanic *skrūbō (“screw”), from *skru- (“to cut”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keru-, *(s)ker- (“to cut”), and is related to German Schraube (“screw”), Low German schruve, schruwe (“screw”), Dutch schroef (“screw”), West Frisian skroef (“screw”), Danish skrue (“screw”), Swedish skruv (“screw, peg”), Icelandic skrúfa (“screw”).
Compare also Occitan escrofa (“screw nut”), Calabrese scrufina (“screw nut”), which may be borrowings of the Old French word, or parallel developments.

gloss

"screw"; whence Middle Dutch <i class="Latn mention" lang="dum">schruyve</i> (“screw”)

cog

the first turn of the screw pays all debts

A simple machine, a helical inclined plane.


lever

From Middle English lever, levore, levour, from Old French leveor, leveur (“a lifter, lever (also Old French and French levier)”), from Latin levātor (“a lifter”), from levō (“to raise”). Doublet of levator.

(mechanics) An arm on a rock shaft, to give motion to the shaft or to obtain motion from it.


wheel

we'll (one pronunciation along with the wine–whine merger)

From Middle English whel, from Old English hwēol, from Proto-West Germanic *hwehwl, from Proto-Germanic *hwehwlą, *hweulō, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷekʷlóm, *kʷékʷlos, *kʷékʷléh₂, reduplication of *kʷel- (“to turn”) and a suffix (literally "(the thing that) turns and turns"). See also West Frisian tsjil, Dutch wiel, Danish hjul; also Tocharian B kokale (“cart, wagon”), Ancient Greek κύκλος (kúklos, “cycle, wheel”), Avestan 𐬗𐬀𐬑𐬭𐬀 (caxra), Sanskrit चक्र (cakrá); and Latin colō (“to till, cultivate”), Tocharian A and Tocharian B käl- (“to bear; bring”), Ancient Greek πέλω (pélō, “to come into existence, become”), Old Church Slavonic коло (kolo, “wheel”), Albanian sjell (“to bring, carry, turn around”), Avestan 𐬗𐬀𐬭𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 (caraⁱti, “it circulates”), Sanskrit चरति (cárati, “it moves, wanders”). Doublet of chakra, chakram, charkha, chukker, cycle, and cyclus.

агьежь

a circular device facilitating movement or transportation

peix gros

The breaking wheel, an old instrument of torture.

(slang) A person with a great deal of power or influence; a big wheel.

(computing, dated) A superuser on certain systems.


inclined plane

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-inclined plane.wav

On this railway there were three inclined planes of the self-acting type, the full wagons pulling up the empty.

1947 May and June, “Notes and News: The Fordell Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 188:

(mechanics) One of the simple machines; a sloping surface such as a ramp such that an object can be raised with less effort than being lifted vertically.


pulley

en-noun

pulley (plural pulleys or (obsolete) pullies)

pulleys (plural)
pullies (obsolete plural)

From Middle English puly, poley, from Old French poulie, polie (“a pulley, windlass”), from Medieval 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.

der

These pulleys […] placed collaterally.

1648, John Wilkins, Mathematical Magick:

Nine hundred of the ſtrongeſt Men were employed to draw up theſe Cords by many Pulleys faſtned on the Poles, and thus, in leſs than three Hours, I was raiſed and flung into the Engine, and there tyed faſt.

1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Gives Some Account of Himself and Family, His First Inducements to Travel. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput), page 20:

The steel haulage ropes have a breaking strain of 50 tons, and another pair passing around a pulley at the bottom connect the lower ends of the cars and act as tail or balance ropes.

1951 August, P. W. Gentry, “Cliff Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 515:

(engineering, countable) 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).


simple machine

(physics, engineering) A device that only requires the application of a single force to work.


clinch nut

A threaded fastener secured by a press fit into one of the pieces to be joined. Frequently used in sheet metal designs when a material is too thin to tap threads.


block and tackle

en-noun

block and tackle (plural block and tackles or blocks and tackles)

block and tackles (plural)
blocks and tackles (plural)

A system in which a rope, cable, or chain (the tackle) is passed over pulleys enclosed in two (or rarely more) blocks, one fixed and one attached to a load, which is used to gain mechanical advantage to lift or pull heavy loads.

(euphemistic) The underwear combination of stockings worn with a suspender belt.


wheel and axle

wheel and axle (plural wheels and axles)

mechanical advantage
mechanical advantage

A simple machine consisting of a wheel (or similar lever) that turns an axle around which a cord is wound; its mechanical advantage is the ratio of the diameters of the wheel and axle.


clevis pin

Part of clevis fastener that allows rotation of the connected parts about the axis of the pin. A clevis pin consists of a head, shank and hole. The hole passes through the shank at the opposite end of the pin from the head. A cotter pin or similar through the hole keeps the clevis pin in place.