Forms: 1 onfilti, onfilt(e, anfilte, 4 anfelt, -uylt, anefelt, -feld, 4–5 anfeld, -velt, 5 aneuelt, anuylde, anduell, 5–6 andfelde, 6 anvelde, anuilde, anuielde, (hanfeld), and(e)vile, 6–7 anfeeld, anvild, anvile, anvill, 6– anvil. [Etymol. uncertain. OE. ǫnfilti, is prob. cogn. w. ODu. dial. aenvilte (Verdam I. 184), and OHG. anafalz; f. an, on, prep. + a possible *filt-an to weld, cf. felt, Ger. filz, and falz in falz-ambosz. The f has become v as in silver, and the final t, passing through d, is lost, as is frequent in dialects.
Onfilti, anafalz, can hardly be distinct from synonymous forms with b: OHG. anabolz, LG. anebolt, anebelte, ambult, ODu. aenbilt, usually derived from *aen-billen = ‘aankloppen, to strike upon’ (Verdam 80); but more prob. an early variant of aenvilte above, due to some confusion. In OHG. anabolz, Sievers suggests a confusion of anafalz with the distinct anabôz, anapôz, MHG. aneboz, mod.G. ambosz, from an + bôz-an, Eng. BEAT. Mod.Du. aanbeeld, ambeld, seems assimilated to beelden, to form, fashion.]
1. The block (usually of iron) on which the smith hammers and shapes the metal which he is working.
a. 800. Corpus Gl. (Sweet, O. E. T.), 1071. Incuda, onfilti.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gram., ix. § 33. 60. Incus, anfilt.
c. 1000. in Wright, Voc., 286/2. Cudo, anfilte.
c. 1369. Chaucer, Blaunche, 1165. As his brothers hamers ronge, Vpon his anuelt vp and downe [v.r. anuelet].
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 1308. Anuylt, tange & slegge.
1388. Wyclif, Ecclus. xxxviii. 29. A smyth sittynge bisidis the anefelt.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVI. iv. Golde … bitwene þe anfelde [1495 andfelde] and þe hamoure … streccheþ in to golde foyle.
1413. Lydg., Pylgr. Sowle, IV. xxx. (1483), 78. Harder than the hamour or the aneuelt.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 358/1. They smyte on the stythye or anduell.
a. 1500[?]. Virgilius, in Thoms, E. E. Pr. Rom., II. 44. They smyte vpon a anuilde.
1530. Palsgr., 740. To stryke with his hammer upon his anvelde.
1543. Traheron, Vigo’s Chirurg., IV. 14 d. A styth, or hanfeld.
1589. Warner, Alb. Eng., VI. xxx. (1612), 147. Vulcan … limping from the Anfeeld.
1607. Hieron, Wks., I. 439. Wee be like the smiths dog, who, the harder the anuile is beaten on, lieth by, and sleepes the sounder.
1611. Bible, Isa. xli. 7. Him that smote the anuill.
1808. Scott, Marm., V. vi. The armourer’s anvil clashed and rang.
2. fig. (the whole expression being usually metaphorical).
1534. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546), E ij. My spyrite is betwene the harde anuielde and the importunate hammer.
c. 1593. Spenser, Sonnet, xxxii. The playnts and prayers with which I Doe beat on th’ anduyle of her stubberne wit.
1605. Camden, Rem., 200. Hammering me vpon the anvild.
1677. R. Gilpin, Dæmonol. Sacr. (1867), 214. Our present posture doth furnish him [Satan] with arguments; he forgeth his javelins upon our anvil.
1845. Ford, Handbk. Spain, i. 59. They have yet to learn that the stomach is the anvil whereon health is forged.
1864. Burton, Scot Abr., I. i. 34. Hardened on the anvil of a war for national freedom.
1883. Sir H. Brand, in Standard, 18 May, 3/3. Several matters that, so to speak, are on the anvil of the House of Commons.
b. phr. On or upon the anvil: in preparation, in hand.
1623. Howell, Lett. (1650), II. 29. Matters while they are in agitation and upon the anvill.
a. 1674. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. II. 110. The Earl of Strafford … whose destruction was then upon the anvil.
1755. Mem. Capt. P. Drake, II. iii. 154. There was Rumours of a Peace being on the Anvil.
1785. Burke, Nabob of Arcot, Wks. 1842, I. 319. He has now on the anvil another scheme.
3. transf. Anything resembling a smith’s anvil in shape or use.
1678. Butler, Hud., III. i. 340. When less Delinquents have been scourg’d, And Hemp on wooden Anvils forg’d.
1881. Greener, Gun, 294. The anvil is shaped like an escutcheon, and is inserted in the cup of the cap, with the point against the detonating powder.
b. esp. in Phys. One of the bones of the ear; so called from its being struck by another bone called the ‘hammer.’
[1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. To Reader. Who hath fashioned the instruments of hearing in the head like to a hammer and an anvile.]
1687. Death’s Vision, iii. 21. When the Perceptive Hammer shall not … Consign Prescribed Blow Unto the Wonted Anvil.
1718. J. Chamberlayne, Relig. Philos., I. xiii. § 5. 247. These Auditory Bones … are found to be four in number, C S is the Hammer, B P the Anvil, [etc.].
1879. Calderwood, Mind & Brain, 71. The head of the hammer rests on the central bone known as the anvil.
4. Comb. and Attrib., as anvil-block, -maker, etc.; also anvil-beater, a smith; anvil-headed a., having a head shaped like an anvil; anvil-proof, the standard of hardness of an anvil; anvil rock (see quot.); anvil-smith, a forger of anvils.
1870. Bryant, Homer, II. XVIII. 219. He spake, and from his anvil-block arose.
1677. Cleveland’s Poems, Ep. Ded. A iij b. Venus is again unequally yoaked with a sooty Anvile-beater.
1851. Melville, Whale, xlvii. 303. The anvil-headed whale.
1616. Beaum. & Fl., Faithf. Fr., II. iii. Though their scull-caps be of anvil-proof, This blade shall hammer some of ’em.
1862. Dana, Man. Geol., 330. Above the twelfth [coal bed in Kentucky] there is the massive Sandstone … called the Anvil Rock, from the form of two masses of it in South-western Kentucky.
1831. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, I. 90. Some anvil-smiths … forge the upper part … out of one piece of iron.
