Word of the Day

: May 2, 2008

anneal

verb uh-NEEL

What It Means

1 : to make (as steel or glass) less brittle by heating and then cooling

2 : strengthen, toughen

anneal in Context

The glassmaker shaped the vase with quick, fluid movements and then placed it in the oven to anneal the glass.

Did You Know?

If you were looking for a saying to apply to the word "anneal," it might be "everything old is new again." The word was originally associated with one of the oldest technologies of humankind: fire. It derives from the Old English word "onælan," which was formed from the Old English root "āl," meaning "fire." In its earliest known uses, which date from around the year 1000, "anneal" meant simply "to set on fire." That sense has become obsolete, however, and nowadays "anneal" is associated with a much more recent technological development. It has come to be used in the context of DNA research, in reference to the heating and cooling of double-stranded nucleic acid.