Where does “mainspring” come from?
Mainspring comes from English main and spring, where main derives from French main, Middle French main, and Latin manus meaning hand, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European men- or man-.
mainspring (English): The principal spring of a clockwork mechanism,...
Definitions
- The principal spring of a clockwork mechanism,...
Ancestry of “mainspring”, step by step
mainspring traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English spring
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | spring | To burst forth; To grow; To cause to burst forth |
| 2 | Romanian | Șpring | — |
| 3 | German | spring | singular imperative of springen; first-person... |
| 4 | German | springen | to spring; to leap; to bounce; to dive; to jump;... |
| 5 | Old High German | springan | — |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | springaną | to spring, to jump up; to burst, to explode |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | spr̥ǵʰ | — |