Anneals

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To heat metal and then cool it to increase toughness and reduce brittleness ; to become stronger or more resilient through experience or difficulty
2. To treat metal by controlled heating and cooling for better durability ; to develop greater strength or endurance mentally or emotionally through challenges
3. A process of heating and cooling metal to enhance its properties ; the act of gaining toughness or character by enduring hardships

Etymology: The most surprising thing about "anneal" is that its ancestry has nothing to do with cooling. Its Old English form, "onǣlan," meant to burn, ignite or set fire to, and it could also mean to inspire or kindle feeling. Metalworkers only borrowed the word for their practice of heating metal and letting it cool slowly, which softens it and relieves internal stress. The word's roots are fire. It combines "on," meaning "on," with a Germanic verb for burning, and it is related to Old English "āl," meaning fire, as well as to modern Scandinavian words such as Icelandic "eldur," Swedish "eld" and Danish "ild," all meaning fire. The double "n" in the spelling is probably not original. It likely arose by analogy with Latinate verbs such as "announce," "annex" and "annul," which share that spelling pattern, even though this word comes from Germanic roots.

Synonyms: heats, hardens