You don’t need to be a DIY type of person to know what a “hammer” is. We use this tool to hit nails into wood, break things or make them flat… However, there are objects that look like hammers and, in essence, they indeed are hammers, but they go by different names.
How about the one that you use in the kitchen to make meat softer, say, when preparing schnitzels? Huh? Is that a hammer? – Nuh-uh. We call that a “meat tenderizer” as we tenderize meat with it. “Tenderize” comes from “tender” – and I’m sure you all know the famous song by Elvis Presley: “Love me tender” where he pleads with his darling to love him tender, meaning love him gently, softly… There you go – if “tender” means “soft”, then the verb “tenderize” means to “make something soft”, such as meat.
And what about a judge or an auctioneer, or anyone in charge of a meeting for that matter, who needs to get people’s attention? Are they banging a hammer on the table? All wet! This thingy is called a “gavel”. You may come across sentences like: The judge banged a gavel to pronounce him guilty. or The auctioneer pounded his gavel yelling: “Going once, going twice, SOLD for 2,000 dollars!” So hammer away 😉
