winch

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English winche, also wenche,^[2][3] inherited from Old English wince (“a winch, reel, pulley”),^{[4][5][6][7][8]} from Proto-Germanic *winkijǭ,^[1][9][7] from Proto-Indo-European *weng- (“to bend, curve”), the root also of wink.^{[9][4][7][10]} Barnhart, Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Klein relate it to wincian (“to blink, close one's eyes, nod”).^[3][11][12] In an Old English glossary it translates Latin girgillus (“a reel”).^[6] Etymonline suggests it was named for its bent handle,^[9] and Skeat took that to be the original sense, comparing Old English wincel (“a corner”);^[13] Weekley gives the ground sense as "something turning, bending" and calls it cognate with wince.^[14] Johnson had derived it from French guincher (“to twist”).^[15] The verb, to hoist with a winch, is formed from the noun in the early 16th century.^[4][3][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A reel, roller or pulley: an Old English glossary.^[4][6][16] Barnhart dates the Old English word to about 1050,^[3] and the Middle English Dictionary's first record is a 1295 account of Wenches bought.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

From a roller or pulley the word passed to machines turned by a crank.^[4][2] In Middle English it was also a well-wheel and hence a deep well or shaft (c. 1440–1632).^[4][2] The sense of a machine for hoisting or hauling, with a drum round which a rope is wound and a crank to turn it, is recorded from 1577,^[4][3] and on the Thames a riverside winch was used to haul boats through difficult stretches, with a toll for its use (1623).^[4] The cranked handle itself was a winch from 1660, an angler's reel from 1662, and in dyeing a roller over which cloth is moved from vat to vat from 1740.^[4][10] Johnson (1755) defined it as a windlass, or a handle by which a wheel or cylinder is turned.^[15] The verb, to hoist or haul with a winch, followed in 1529.^[4][11][3] In Cumberland dialect a winch was a vice or iron screw, and in West Yorkshire a divided roller over which warps are run.^[17]

Timeline

• Old English – a reel, roller or pulley.^[4][6]
• 1295 – wenche, a roller or pulley, in an account.^[2][3]
• c. 1440 – a well-wheel turned by a crank; a well (obsolete by 1632).^[4][2]
• 1529 – verb, to hoist or draw up with a winch.^[4][11][3] Etymonline dates the verb to the 1520s.^[9]
• 1577 – a hoisting or hauling machine with a drum and a crank.^[4][3]
• 1623 – a riverside winch for hauling boats on the Thames.^[4]
• 1640 – a small machine for making ropes and spun yarn.^[4]
• 1660 – the cranked handle of a revolving machine.^[4]
• 1662 – an angler's reel.^[4][10]
• 1740 – in dyeing, a roller for moving cloth between vats.^[4]
• 1845 – verb, in dyeing.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A machine for hoisting or hauling, with a drum or roller round which a rope or chain is wound, turned by a crank or a motor; a windlass: The crew used a winch to drag the dinghy up the slipway.^[18][11][4]
2. A crank handle by which a machine is turned.^[18][4]
3. (dyeing) A roller set between dyeing vats so that cloth can be moved from one to the other.^[11][4]
4. An angler's reel.^[4][10]
5. (obsolete) A roller or reel.^[11][4]

Verb

1. To hoist or haul with, or as if with, a winch: They winched the crates aboard the trawler.^[18][11][4]
2. (dyeing) To put cloth into a vat by means of a winch.^[11][4]

Word family

• wincher
• winchman

Related words

• wink
• wince
• wench

Usage notes

The OED and the Shorter Oxford also have a separate verb winch, to start back, recoil, flinch, recorded from before 1250 in the Ancrene Riwle and later used of a horse kicking restlessly; it is from an Anglo-Norman variant of Old French guenchier (“to turn aside, avoid”), of Germanic origin, the same word as wince.^[4][10] Collins calls it an obsolete word for wince,^[18] and it survived in dialect from Scotland to Lancashire and the Isle of Man.^[17][10] In Scots, winch, a variant of wench, is also a verb meaning to go out with someone, recorded from 1935.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ 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 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ 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.
16. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
17. ^ a b 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)
18. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins