wheel

英文词源

wheel

wheel: [OE] A wheel is etymologically simply something that ‘goes round’. It is a member of a large family of words that goes back to Indo- European *qweqwlo-, which was derived from *qwelo- ‘go round’. Other members include Greek kúklos ‘circle’ (source of English cycle), Sanskrit cakrá- ‘circle, wheel’ (source of English chukker), Serbo-Croat and Czech kolo ‘wheel’, and Russian koleso ‘wheel’. Its prehistoric Germanic descendant was *khwekhula, which evolved into Dutch wiel, Swedish and Danish hjul, and English wheel.
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wheel (n.)

Old English hweol, hweogol "wheel," from Proto-Germanic *hwewlaz- (cognates: Old Norse hvel, Old Swedish hiughl, Old Frisian hwel, Middle Dutch weel), from PIE *kw(e)-kwl-o- "wheel, circle," suffixed, reduplicated form of root *kwel- (1) (see cycle (n.)).

The root wegh-, "to convey, especially by wheeled vehicle," is found in virtually every branch of Indo-European, including now Anatolian. The root, as well as other widely represented roots such as aks- and nobh-, attests to the presence of the wheel -- and vehicles using it -- at the time Proto-Indo-European was spoken. [Watkins, p. 96]

Figurative sense is early 14c. Wheel of fortune attested from early 15c. Slang wheels "a car" is recorded from 1959. Wheeler-dealer is from 1954, a rhyming elaboration of dealer.

wheel (v.)

"to turn like a wheel," c. 1200, from wheel (n.); transitive sense attested from late 14c. Related: Wheeled; wheeling.