Other forms: kettles
A kettle is the container with a spout that boils water for tea. A lid, a handle, and a switch that clicks off.
It is close to a national object in Britain, and putting the kettle on is the standard response to almost any situation. Electric ones took over from the stove-top kind decades ago. The word gives us two idioms, since a different kettle of fish means an entirely separate matter, and the pot calling the kettle black describes somebody accusing another of their own fault.
1nounkettleA container with a lid and spout for boiling water.
“He filled the kettle and switched it on.”
Patternput the kettle on · boil / fill the kettle · the kettle boils / whistles · an electric kettle
KETTLE → then everyone can SETTLE
It clicks off, you pour the water, and everyone can settle down with a cup of tea.
hooks ontosettle
Kettle goes back to Proto-Germanic katilaz, which covered a kettle, a bucket and any vessel at all. Old English had ċietel for a cauldron, and the Norse form ketill nudged the spelling towards the k we use.
Middle English
ketel
English, today
kettle
Built from
From Middle English ketel. From Middle English ketel, also chetel, from Old English ċietel (“kettle, cauldron”) and in Middle English possibly influenced by Old Norse ketill and both from Proto-Germanic katilaz (“kettle, bucket, vessel”), of uncertain origin and formation. Usually regarded as a borrowing of Latin catīllus (“small bowl”), diminutive of Latin catinus (“deep bowl, vessel for cooking up or serving food”), however, the word may be Germanic confused with the Latin: compare Old English cete (“cooking pot”), Old High German chezzi (“a kettle, dish, bowl”), Icelandic kati, ketla (“a small boat”). Cognate with West Frisian tsjettel (“kettle”), Dutch ketel (“kettle”), German Kessel (“kettle”), Swedish kittel (“cauldron, kettle”), Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐍄𐌹𐌻𐍃 (“kettle”), Finnish kattila, Polish kocioł (“cauldron”), Czech kotel (“boiler”), Russian котёл (“boiler, cauldron”). watch Cockney rhyming slang from 'kettle and hob' to 'fob' (fob watch).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA