windmill

Etymology

It is formed from English wind + mill.^[2][3][4][5] In Middle English it was written wind-milne,^[3] windmulle^[5][6] and, in Chaucer, wind-melle.^[7] Similar compounds are Middle Dutch wintmolen (13th century; now Dutch windmolen), late Middle High German wintmül (now German Windmühle), post-classical Latin molendinum ad ventum and Old French molin a vent, now French moulin à vent, the last two from the late 12th century.^[2][3] In aeronautics the word apparently followed the German word, used in 1920 for an unpowered rotor.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A structure whose sails, turned by the wind, drive machinery for grinding: about 1230, in a charter of Luffield Priory.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to about 1300, and to the mid-13th century in place names;^[3] Merriam-Webster gives the 14th century.^[5] Chaucer has wind-melle in the House of Fame.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From the 15th century a windmill was also a figure of a windmill's sails, especially a cross drawn instead of a signature by someone unable to write;^[2] in Rutland dialect to do the windmill was still to make one's mark.^[8] Florio recorded the child's toy, a stick with vanes that turn in the wind, in 1598,^[2] and Westmorland speakers knew it as a cross pinned to a stick.^[8] Figurative uses followed: a fanciful notion or foolish scheme, often a windmill in one's head (1612, in Webster's White Devil; now archaic).^[2] An imagined enemy (1645) alludes to Don Quixote, who attacked windmills thinking they were giants.^[2][3] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as a mill turned by the wind and quoted Waller's lines on advancing a vain lance against a windmill like Don Quixote.^[9] To throw one's cap over the windmill, to act in defiance of convention, is recorded from 1838.^[2][4] In 1879 the word was applied to a wind turbine generating electricity.^[2] Sports borrowed it for circular arm movements: an overarm delivery in cricket (1867), an underhand pitch in softball (1965) and a breakdancing move (1983).^[2] The verb, first recorded in 1694 for turning like a windmill's sails, came to mean swinging the arms in circles in 1851.^[2] Etymonline dates the sense "swing the arms wildly" to 1888.^[3] Since 1920 the verb has also been used of an unpowered aircraft engine whose propeller keeps turning in the airflow.^[2][5] In 19th-century slang a windmill was also the anus.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1230 – a mill driven by the wind acting on sails.^[2] Etymonline dates it to about 1300.^[3]
• before 1450 – a figure of a windmill's sails; a cross made instead of a signature.^[2]
• 1598 – a child's toy with vanes that turn in the wind.^[2]
• 1612 – a fanciful notion or foolish scheme (now archaic).^[2]
• 1645 – an imagined enemy, alluding to Don Quixote.^[2][3]
• 1694 – verb, to turn like the sails of a windmill.^[2]
• 1851 – verb, to move round rapidly in a circle, especially of the arms.^[2] Etymonline dates the sense to 1888.^[3]
• 1879 – a wind turbine generating electricity.^[2]
• 1920 – verb, of an unpowered aircraft engine, to keep turning in the airflow.^[2]
• 1965 – a softball pitch with a full circular swing of the arm.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mill or other machine driven by the wind acting on sails or vanes that turn on a shaft, used to grind grain or pump water.^[5][2][11]
2. A wind-driven machine that generates electricity; a wind turbine.^[2][5][11]
3. A toy with paper or plastic vanes on a stick that spin in the wind; a pinwheel.^[2][11]
4. An imagined enemy, in phrases such as tilt at windmills, from the story of Don Quixote.^[2][4]
5. A movement in which the arm swings in a full circle, as in a softball pitch or a breakdancing move.^[2]

Verb

1. To swing or rotate in circles like the sails of a windmill: The goalkeeper windmilled his arms to keep warm.^[5][2]
2. Of an unpowered propeller or engine, to turn because of the air flowing past it.^[5][2]

Related words

• mill
• wind
• watermill
• quixotic

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
7. ^ a b Skeat, W. W., ed. (1894), The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. VI: Glossarial Index, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ 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)
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ a b c The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers