pliers

Etymology

It is formed from English ply + -er + -s, the plural of an agent noun from the verb ply, to bend.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The OED notes a Latin record of 1490 with “plyorys”, which may show earlier Middle English use of the word or an otherwise unrecorded Anglo-Norman word.^[2] Ply is from Old French plier (“to fold, bend”), from Latin plicō (“to fold”),^[4][7][8] and Etymonline compares French plieur (“folder”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pincers with gripping jaws, for bending or cutting wire and holding small objects: 1565, in the churchwardens' accounts of Rye.^[2][6] Barnhart dates the word to 1568–69,^[3] and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate to about 1569.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) described pliers as a tool for taking hold of a thing to bend it, of two sorts, flat-nosed and round-nosed.^[10] In Gloucestershire pliers were a kind of tongs used by smokers to pick up a lighted coal.^[11] In the West Indies pliers is also a small dumpling, named for being so tough that pliers would be needed to break it.^[12]

Timeline

• 1565 – pincers for gripping small objects and bending or cutting wire.^[2][6] Barnhart gives 1568–69.^[3]
• 1958 – in the West Indies, a small, finger-shaped dumpling.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hand tool with two hinged arms and usually serrated jaws, used for gripping small objects and for bending or cutting wire, often called a pair of pliers: He used the pliers to twist the cable ends together.^{[13][6][2][9]}

Related words

• ply
• pliable
• pliant
• plywood

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ 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)
12. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins