Other forms: fulcrums
A fulcrum is the point a lever turns on, or the crux of a matter. The fulcrum of the lever, move the fulcrum, the fulcrum of the argument.
Moving it changes everything, since a lever's advantage depends entirely on where the fulcrum sits. The figurative use means the point on which the whole thing turns, and the Latin behind it is a bedpost.
1nounfulcrumThe point a lever turns on, or the crux of a matter.
“Put the plank over a rock as a fulcrum, and you can lift the heavy stone.”
fulcrum is a point.
The Latin is to prop up. The fulcrum is what props the lever: the one point the whole thing turns on.
hooks ontoturn
Latin fulcrum means a bedpost or support, from fulcire, to prop up.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰelǵ-
Latin
fulcrum — bedpost, foot of a couch
English, today
fulcrum
Built from
Borrowed from Latin fulcrum (“bedpost, foot of a couch”), from fulciō (“prop up, support”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA