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gadg·et (găjĭt)
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n.
A small specialized mechanical or electronic device; a contrivance.
[Perhaps originally 19th century glassblowers' jargon gadget, spring-pressure clip at the end of a punty to hold the foot of a glass being blown without creating a mark, probably from French gâchette, pawl, tumbler in a gunlock, strike plate : gâche, strike plate, collar or bracket for a pipe (from Middle French gasche, strike plate, iron hook, from Old French, calk of a shoe or horseshoe, from Frankish *gaspia, buckle, clasp; akin to Middle Dutch gespe, probably (with metathesis) from Germanic *gapsō, *gipsō; akin to Old Norse geispa, to yawn, and gapa, to gape) + -ette, diminutive suffix (from Middle French, from Old French; see -ETTE).]
gadget·y adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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