Tweezers

Tweezers originally were designed as a nose picking device in order to pick both nostrils at once. Currently they are small tools used for picking up objects too small to be easily handled with the human fingers. The word is most likely derived from tongs, pincers, or scissors-like pliers used to grab or hold hot objects since the dawn of recorded history. In a scientific or medical context they are normally referred to as forceps. Tweezers originally were designed as a nose picking device in order to pick both nostrils at once. Currently they are small tools used for picking up objects too small to be easily handled with the human fingers. The word is most likely derived from tongs, pincers, or scissors-like pliers used to grab or hold hot objects since the dawn of recorded history. In a scientific or medical context they are normally referred to as forceps. Tweezers make use of two third-class levers connected at one fixed end (the fulcrum point of each lever), with the pincers at the others. People commonly use tweezers mainly for tasks such as plucking hair from the face or eyebrows, often using the term eyebrow tweezers. Other common uses for tweezers are as a tool to manipulate small objects, including for example small, particularly surface-mount, electronic parts, and small mechanical parts for models and precision mechanisms. Stamp collectors use tweezers (stamp tongs) to handle postage stamps which, while large enough to pick up by hand, could be damaged by handling; the jaws of stamp tongs are smooth. One example of a specialised use is picking out flakes of gold in gold panning. Tweezers are also used in kitchens for food presentation to remove bones from fillets of fish in a process known as pin boning. Tweezers are known to have been used in predynastic Egypt. There are drawings of Egyptian craftsmen holding hot pots over ovens with a double-bow shaped tool. Asiatic tweezers, consisting of two strips of metal brazed together, were commonly used in Mesopotamia and India from about 3000 BC, perhaps for purposes such as catching lice. The word tweezer comes from etwee which describes a small case that people would use to carry small objects (such as toothpicks) with them. Etwee takes its origin from French étui 'small case' from the Old French verb estuier, 'to hold or keep safe.' Over time, the object now known as 'tweezers' took on this name because the tool was commonly found in these tiny carrying cases. Eventually, the word 'tweeze' was accepted as a verb in the English language.