page_title: Bellows
section_title: Etymology
hierarchical_section_title: Bellows / Etymology
caption_attribution_description: Deutsches Werkzeugmuseum in Remscheid / German tool museum in Remscheid, Germany
context_page_description: A bellows or pair of bellows is a device constructed to furnish a strong blast of air. The simplest type consists of a flexible bag comprising a pair of rigid boards with handles joined by flexible leather sides enclosing an approximately airtight cavity which can be expanded and contracted by operating the handles, and fitted with a valve allowing air to fill the cavity when expanded, and with a tube through which the air is forced out in a stream when the cavity is compressed. It has many applications, in particular blowing on a fire to supply it with air.
  The term "bellows" is used by extension for a flexible bag whose volume can be changed by compression or expansion, but not used to deliver air. For example, the light-tight bag allowing the distance between the lens and film of a folding photographic camera to be varied is called a bellows.
context_section_description: "Bellows" is only used in plural. The Old English name for 'bellows' was blǽstbęl(i)g, blást-bęl(i)g 'blast-bag', 'blowing-bag'; the prefix was dropped and by the eleventh century the simple bęlg, bylg, bylig ('bag') was used. The word is cognate with "belly". There are similar words in Old Norse, Swedish, and Danish and Dutch (blaasbalg), but the derivation is not certain. 'Bellows' appears not to be cognate with the apparently similar Latin follis.
caption: A preserved baker's bellows at Deutsches Werkzeugmuseum (German Tools Museum) at Remscheid.
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