Word To Use Today: mandrel.

 No, not a mandrill:

photo by Robert Young

a mandrel:

photos by Mauro Cateb

Those are jewellery mandrels, the first lot used for forming the shape of rings etc, and the one in the second photograph used for designing necklaces.

Mandrels can also form part of a lathe:

this is a Swiss clockmaker's mandrel lathe. I'm a bit hazy about which part is the actual mandrel, but it seems to be the part that holds things in place so they can be turned.

In Britain, a mandrel is also a miner's pick.

I love the word mandrel because it sounds old. I love to think of all the mandrels wielded by craftsmen and labourers over the centuries who have made the world in which we live.

Much honour and gratitude to them all.

Word To Use Today: mandrel. There's a French word mandrin, which means lathe, and this word may be something to do with that.

The word mandrill comes from, um, man, plus drill, which is a West African word for a large monkey.