Homonyms, Etymologically Speaking: V

Many words have two meanings, sometimes more, which are often very different. Such words have identical spelling and pronunciation, they are known as homonyms. Here I continue an A to Z list of such words and look at how that word came to have two different meanings.

V is for vice, the tool used to hold a piece while working on it, or a sin. Taking the latter first, we find the word arriving in English at the end of the 13th century from Old French vice 'fault, defect, misdemeanour'. Further back we find vitium 'offense, blemish, imperfection', but this is as far as we can trace the word.

The tool also comes from Old French, where vis meant 'screw', from Latin vitis 'vine, tendril of a vine'; and thus named from the screw mechanism which, in turn, is likened to the winding of the vine around its support. The tool is not recorded as such until the early sixteen century, prior to that the word could be used to refer to winches for a crossbow or catapult, a spiral staircase, or a twisting tie fastening a hood under the chin.