Etymology
Spelling note: "Baling wire" is sometimes misspelled as "bailing" wire, but "bailing" usually refers to a leak or flood, as in "bailing" out a leaky rowboat with a pail, or bailing out a bank with funds to keep it afloat.
It is also known as "haywire," from which the term "go haywire" arose, referring to crazy or mixed up from the wire's use to fix anything in an ad hoc manner.
Its closest industrial (proper name) is Mechanic's Wire (Soft Annealed Mechanic's Wire, 18 AWG).
Read more about this topic: Baling Wire
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)