lever

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English levour, also levere and lever,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman lever (“crowbar”), also leveor and levier,^[5][6] from Old French leveor or levier, agent nouns from lever (“to raise”).^[7][6][8][9] The OED notes that the French form with -eor is recorded for the tool only once (1487, as Middle French leveur), while the usual French word is levier, recorded from the 12th century and formed from the same verb with a different suffix;^[7] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary derive the English word from levier,^[10][11] and Barnhart notes that leveor is also cited.^[9] The French verb is from Latin levō (“to raise, lighten”),^[10][11][12] from levis (“light in weight”),^[10][11][9] from Proto-Indo-European *legʷʰ- (“not heavy, light”).^[10][11] Klein lists among its cognates Ancient Greek ἐλαχύς (elakhús, “small”), Lithuanian leñgvas (“light”) and Old English lēoht (“light”), the source of light.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A bar of iron or wood used to prise up or dislodge something heavy or firmly fixed, a crowbar: 1297, in Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle,^[7] where the besiegers bring laddren & leuours.^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline date it to about 1300.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English a levour was also a bar used as a weapon, a carrying pole and a straightedge,^[2] and in Anglo-Norman it could be a cudgel;^[5] the general sense of a bar or pole lasted from 1297 to 1613.^[7] In 1648 J. Wilkins adopted the word in mechanics as the name of the simple machine of which the crowbar is an example,^[7] and Johnson (1755) described it as the second of the mechanical powers.^[13] From 1481 the word was used of a curved roof-beam,^[7] a sense still found in 19th-century dialect in Northumberland and Durham.^[14][7] Later uses named a starting-bar on a steam engine (1759), a surgical instrument (1846), the part that opens a breech-loading gun (1881) and, short for lever watch, a kind of watch (1865).^[7] From 1862 it also meant any handle by which a machine is worked; from 1903 it was also a means of making something happen, as in to pull the lever.^[7] The verb, to work with a lever, is recorded from 1856,^[7][9][10] and in the transitive sense, to move with a lever, from 1876.^[7][12]

Timeline

• 1297 – a crowbar or handspike; also a bar or pole in general (obsolete by 1613).^[7]
• c. 1300 – the date in Barnhart and Etymonline.^[9][10]
• 1408 – the spelling lever.^[9]
• 1481 – a curved roof-beam (now dialect).^[7]
• 1648 – Mechanics: the simple machine.^[7]
• 1856 – verb, to work with a lever.^[7][9]
• 1862 – a handle by which a mechanism is worked.^[7]
• 1876 – verb, to move something with a lever.^[7][12]
• 1903 – figurative, a means of making something happen.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rigid bar that turns on a fulcrum, used to move a load with a mechanical advantage.^[15][7]
2. A bar used for prising or dislodging something; a crowbar.^[12][7]
3. A projecting arm or handle by which a machine is worked: He pulled the brake lever.^[7][15]
4. A means of putting pressure on someone to achieve something: The union used the strike as a lever in the pay talks.^[12][15]
5. (dialect) A curved roof-beam supporting a roof.^[14][7]

Verb

1. To prise, lift or move something with a lever, or as if with one: She levered the lid off the paint tin.^[12][15][7]
2. To work with a lever.^[12][7]

Word family

• leverage
• lever action
• lever escapement

Related words

• levant
• levator
• alleviate
• elevator
• elevate
• leaven
• levitate
• levity
• levy
• relieve
• light
• cantilever

Usage notes

The pronunciation /ˈliːvə/ is British and /ˈlɛvər/ the usual American one.^[7] Two other words of this spelling are now obsolete: lever, a believer, recorded before 1400, and lever, a levee or morning reception, from 1742.^[7] In dialect lever is also a form of liefer, rather.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins