whetstone
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See also: Whetstone
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle English whestone, whetston, whetesston, from Old English hwetstān, from Proto-West Germanic *hwattjastain (“whetstone”). Equivalent to whet (“to sharpen”) + stone.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (US) IPA(key): /ˈwɛtˌstoʊn/, [ˈwɛʔˌstoʊn]
- (US, without the wine–whine merger) IPA(key): /ˈʍɛtˌstoʊn/, [ˈʍɛʔˌstoʊn]
- (UK) IPA(key): /wɛtstəʊn/
Audio (US, wine–whine merger): (file) Audio (US, without the wine–whine merger): (file)
Noun
[edit]whetstone (plural whetstones)
- A sharpening stone; a hard stone or piece of synthetically bonded hard minerals that has been formed with at least one flat surface, used to sharpen or hone an edged tool.
- c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 186, column 2, line 192:
- […] for alwaies the dulneſſe of the foole, is the whetstone of the wits.
- 1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC:
- It was as if a stone were ground to dust; as if white sparks flew from a livid whetstone, which was his spine; as if the switchback railway, having swooped to the depths, fell, fell, fell.
- (figurative) A stimulant.
- (computing) Alternative letter-case form of Whetstone (“benchmark”)
Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]stone used to hone tools
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Verb
[edit]whetstone (third-person singular simple present whetstones, present participle whetstoning, simple past and past participle whetstoned)
- (transitive) To sharpen with a whetstone.
See also
[edit]Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English compound terms
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
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- en:Computing
- English verbs
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- en:Tools