awlyoudaoicibaDictYouDict[awl 词源字典]
awl: [OE] The Old English form, æl, came from a hypothetical Germanic base *āl-, which had a probable relative in Sanskrit ārā. The compound bradawl was formed in the 19th century using the term brad ‘thin flat nail’, which came originally from Old Norse broddr ‘spike’. Awls, tools for making holes to take nails, are part of the shoemaker’s traditional set of implements: hence the apparently quite recent, early 20thcentury rhyming slang cobbler’s awls (cobblers for short) for ‘balls’.
[awl etymology, awl origin, 英语词源]
awl (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
Old English æl "awl, piercer," from Proto-Germanic *ælo (cognates: Old Norse alr, Dutch aal, Middle Low German al, Old High German äla, German Ahle), which is of uncertain origin. Earliest references are to piercing of the ears, though later it was associated with shoemakers. Through misdivision, frequently written 15c.-17c. as nawl (for an awl; see N).