trowel

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English trouel, also truel,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French truele,^[3][4][5][6] recorded in the 13th century,^[3][5] now French truelle.^[3][6] The Anglo-Norman truel is attested from the early 13th century.^[7] The French word is from Late Latin truella (“small ladle, dipper”),^[4][5][8] recorded in 1163 in Du Cange,^[3] an alteration of classical trulla (“ladle, scoop”),^[3][6][9] the diminutive of trua (“stirring spoon, ladle, skimmer”).^[3][5][10] Merriam-Webster Unabridged links these with Old English þwirel (“stick for stirring”), Old High German dwiril and Ancient Greek τορύνη (torúnē, “stick for stirring”),^[10] and Barnhart thinks them probably related to Latin turbō (“to stir up, agitate”) and turba (“turmoil”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A hand tool for masons: truell, in a record of 1295 cited in Salzman's Building in England.^[2] The OED and Barnhart start with four trowellis in the Pipe Roll of 1344,^[3][4][2] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the word to the 13th century.^[10]

Semantic evolution

A ladle or stirring spoon gave its name to a builder's tool, according to Skeat from the shape.^[11] The Wycliffite Bible has "a truel of masoun" about 1384.^[2] Johnson (1755) still defined it as the bricklayer's tool for taking up and spreading mortar.^[12] The shape then suggested new applications: a kitchen slice in 1773,^[3] a gardener's scoop in 1796^[3][4][5] and a tool for spreading paint on oilcloth in 1845.^[3] The verb, from the noun, means spreading or smoothing with the tool.^[3][5][4] Sources disagree on its date, between the late 16th century in the Shorter Oxford and Barnhart's concise dictionary^[13][14] and about 1670 in the OED, Barnhart's full dictionary and Merriam-Webster.^[3][4][10] The figurative lay it on with a trowel, to flatter or labour a point crudely, is quoted from Shakespeare by Johnson,^[12] and the Phrase Finder traces it to As You Like It of 1600.^[15] The OED's verb sense of laying something on thickly or clumsily, often of flattery, is from 1772.^[3][5]

Timeline

• 1295 – truell, a mason's tool for spreading mortar.^[2] The OED's first record is from 1344.^[3][4]
• c. 1670 – verb, to spread or smooth with a trowel.^[3][4] Etymonline dates it to the 1660s.^[5]
• 1772 – verb, to lay on thickly, often of flattery.^[3][5]
• 1773 – a kitchen ladle or slice of this shape.^[3]
• 1796 – a gardener's scoop-shaped tool.^[3][4][5]
• 1845 – a flat steel tool for spreading paint in making oilcloth.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small hand tool with a flat blade, used to spread and smooth mortar or plaster.^[16][10][3]
2. A small garden tool with a curved, scoop-like blade for lifting plants or earth.^[16][10][3]
3. (rare) A kitchen ladle or slice of similar shape.^[3][13]

Verb

1. To spread, smooth or shape with a trowel: She trowelled the wet cement across the step.^[16][10][3]
2. To put on thickly or clumsily, especially of flattery, as in lay it on with a trowel.^[3][15]

Word family

• troweler
• trowelful

Related words

• turbid

Usage notes

A homonym in Middle English, trouel, meant a basin or vessel, from the Latin word for one; some early quotations can't be separated from the tool.^[2] West Yorkshire dialect had trowel for a truant, used mostly in the phrase to play trowel.^[17]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b Martin, Gary, The Phrase Finder: Meaning and Origin of Phrases, Sayings, Clichés and Quotes, https://www.phrases.org.uk
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ 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)