Post #1852066
2026-05-01 16:43 UTC
I was discussing thimbles when I suddenly wondered about the word’s etymology. It’s clearly not the same as the German fingerhut (finger hat), and I guessed that it’s something to do with the thumb.
So it is. It’s “thumb” plus an instrumental suffix, “-el”, which is added to a root to make a tool name.
(I wish we still had -el as a productive morpheme in English.)
https://www.etymonline.com/word/thimble
1/2
#etymology #tools #sewing
Replies (2)
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@leffe@social.linux.pizza 2026-05-01 16:53
@gannet@sunny.garden In #Swedish: "fingerborg" - "finger fort" 🙂
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@gannet@sunny.garden 2026-05-01 16:43
But the rabbit hole that sent me down is the list of other tool words formed with -el. Also from etymonline: “treadle, ladle, thimble, handle, spindle, girdle, whittle”. Whittle is the one that interests me most: > from Middle English whittel (n.) "a knife," especially a large one (c. 1400), variant of thwittle (early 14c.), from Old English þwitan "to cut," So it was originally thwit + el, meaning a tool for cutting, and then became a term for a specific kind of cutting. There are three -el suffixes in English; the others are defined here: https://www.etymonline.com/word/-el 2/2