scissors-grinder

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   historical: a person, often an itinerant craft worker, who sharpens scissors and other cutting tools on a grinding wheel

   A scissors-grinder stopped in the lane and offered to sharpen the household's knives and shears.

2. 2
   noun

   a regional name for the common European nightjar, from a call likened to the sound of grinding scissors

   At dusk, the rasping call of a scissors-grinder carried across the heath.

3. 3
   noun

   an Australian name for the restless flycatcher, whose call also suggests a grinding sound

   The scissors-grinder flicked its tail as it called from a branch above the creek.

A compound of scissors and grinder. Scissors entered Middle English through Old French cisoirs, a plural cutting-tool noun ultimately connected with Latin caedere, 'to cut.' Grinder descends from Old English grindere, 'one or that which grinds.' The bird names transfer the occupational term to calls compared with a sharpening wheel.

Topics