Other forms: riveting, riveted, rivets, rivetted, rivetting
A rivet is a metal pin hammered flat at the end to join two plates permanently. The rows of studs down the side of a ship or an old bridge.
Rivets held the industrial world together before welding took over, and you can still see them on bridges, boilers and aircraft. Jeans keep them at the corners of the pockets. The verb is where the word turns interesting, because to be riveted is to be unable to look away, and something riveting is gripping. The image is exact: you have been pinned in place.
Old French
rivet
English, today
rivet
From Old French rivet (13th century), from the verb Old French river (“to fetter [a person]”) (12th century), from Old French rive (“rim, edge”) (ca. 1100), which is ultimately from Latin ripa (“riverbank”). Compare river, rival, riparian. The sense "kind of footman's armour" is apparently a a back-formation from almain rivet, which is apparently derived from the English noun; see that entry for more.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA