Other forms: lathes
A lathe is a machine that turns work against a cutting tool. A metal lathe, turn it on the lathe, a wood lathe.
It is the machine that made every other machine possible, because it is the only one that can make parts more accurate than itself. The work spins and the tool moves, which is the reverse of a mill, where the tool spins.
1nounlatheA machine that turns work against a cutting tool.
“He turned the chair legs on a lathe in his workshop.”
lathe is a machine.
Of uncertain origin, probably from a Scandinavian word for a frame or supporting structure.
Proto-Indo-European
*lēy- — to want, desire
Proto-Germanic
*laþōną — to invite
Proto-West Germanic
*laþōn
Old English
laþian — to invite, summon, call upon, ask
Middle English
lathen
English, today
lathe
From Middle English lathen, from Old English laþian (“to invite, summon, call upon, ask”), from Proto-West Germanic laþōn, from Proto-Germanic laþōną (“to invite”), from Proto-Indo-European lēy- (“to want, desire”). Cognate with German laden (“to invite”), Icelandic laða (“to attract”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA