Translation
hammer
Word origin
From late Latin martellus, a little hammer, which became French marteau and Italian martello. Charles Martel, the Frankish commander, was Charles the Hammer, and his nickname is the same word.
- Origin
- Latin, via French
- Root
- martellus
Examples
.
He hit the nail with a hammer.
.
The hammer fell on the floor.
.
I need a hammer to break that stone.
Here is a word that ought to have been built and was borrowed instead. A hammer is a tool, Esperanto has the tool suffix --, and a beginner could reasonably expect o - the thing you hit with. The language went to Latin for it anyway, and - is one indivisible root. Do not read --o; there is no -.
Why borrow when you can build? Because o is too vague to be useful. Anything you strike with is a o, from a cricket bat to a drumstick, and a language that names its tools purely by function ends up with one word for a dozen objects. Esperanto's usual practice is exactly this compromise: international roots for the specific things, home-grown affixes for the relations between them. You can still say o when you mean a beater, and everyone will follow you.
Everything downstream is regular. Marteli is to hammer, o is hammering as an activity, o is a small one and o a sledgehammer. If you are naming the parts, the head is the and the handle the - and there the -- is genuine, because a handle really is the thing you hold with.
Where this fits
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martelo: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "martelo" (hammer): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 43.