different between pivot vs fulcrum

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French pivot, from Old French pivot (“hinge pin, pivot, penis”) (12 c.), of unknown origin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?v?t/
• Rhymes: -?v?t

Noun

pivot (plural pivots)

1. A thing on which something turns; specifically a metal pointed pin or short shaft in machinery, such as the end of an axle or spindle.
2. (figuratively, by extension) Something or someone having a paramount significance in a certain situation.
3. Act of turning on one foot.
   • 2012, Banking reform: Sticking together, The Economist, 18th August issue

     Sandy Weill was the man who stitched Citigroup together in the 1990s and in the process helped bury the Glass-Steagall act, a Depression-era law separating retail and investment banking. Last month he performed a perfect pivot: he now wants regulators to undo his previous work.

4. (military) The officer or soldier who simply turns in his place while the company or line moves around him in wheeling.
5. (roller derby) A player with responsibility for co-ordinating their team in a particular jam.
6. (computing) An element of a set to be sorted that is chosen as a midpoint, so as to divide the other elements into two groups to be dealt with recursively.
7. (computing) A pivot table.
8. (graphical user interface) Any of a row of captioned elements used to navigate to subpages, rather like tabs.
9. (mathematics) An element of a matrix that is used as a focus for row operations, such as dividing the row by the pivot, or adding multiples of the row to other rows making all other values in the pivot column 0.
10. (Canadian football) A quarterback.
11. (US, politics) A shift during a general election in a political candidate's messaging to reflect plans and values more moderate than those advocated during the primary.

Derived terms

• pivot bridge
• pivot gun
• pivot point
• pivot tooth

Translations

See also

• fulcrum
• pivotal

Verb

pivot (third-person singular simple present pivots, present participle pivoting, simple past and past participle pivoted)

1. (intransitive) To turn on an exact spot.
2. To make a sudden or swift change in strategy, policy, etc.
   1. (business slang) To change the direction of a business, usually in response to changes in the market.
   2. (US, politics) To shift a political candidate's messaging during a general election to reflect plans and values more moderate than those advocated during the primary.

Translations

Finnish

Noun

pivot

1. Nominative plural form of pivo.

French

Etymology

From Old French pivot, of unknown origin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pi.vo/

Noun

pivot m (plural pivots)

1. pivot
2. fulcrum
3. lynchpin
4. (basketball) center
   • Pivot (basket-ball) on the French Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^fr
5. (botany) taproot

Derived terms

• pivotant
• pivotement
• pivoter
• pivoteur

Further reading

• “pivot” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Indonesian

Etymology

From Dutch pivot, from French pivot.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?piv?t??]
• Hyphenation: pi?vot

Noun

pivot (plural pivot-pivot, first-person possessive pivotku, second-person possessive pivotmu, third-person possessive pivotnya)

1. pivot.

   Synonyms: putaran, poros, inti

Verb

pivot

1. to pivot.

Further reading

• “pivot” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI) Daring, Jakarta: Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa, Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia, 2016.

Romanian

Etymology

From French pivot.

Noun

pivot n (plural pivoturi)

1. pivot

Declension

Spanish

Etymology

From English pivot.

Noun

pivot m (plural pivots)

1. (basketball) pivot

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin fulcrum (“bedpost, foot of a couch”), from fulci? (“prop up, support”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?f?lk.??m/
• (UK) also IPA^(key): /?f?lk.??m/

Noun

fulcrum (plural fulcrums or fulcra)

1. (mechanics) The support about which a lever pivots.

   It is possible to flick food across the table using your fork as a lever and your finger as a fulcrum.

   • 2010, John Allison, Bad Machinery

     MILDRED: Archimedes said give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it and I will move the world.

     CHARLOTTE: Yeah she said that twaddle eight or nine times.
2. (figuratively) A crux or pivot; a central point.
   • 2006, Rebecca Langlands, Sexual Morality in Ancient Rome (page 119)

     By this point the fulcrum of concern is the stuprum of men upon men, described as more prevalent than that upon women.

Translations

Latin

Etymology

From fulci? +? -crum.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?ful.krum/, [?f???k????]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?ful.krum/, [?fulk?um]

Noun

fulcrum n (genitive fulcr?); second declension

1. bedpost
2. foot (of a couch)
3. couch

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Descendants

• Catalan: fulcre
• English: fulcrum
• French: fulcrum
• Italian: fulcro
• Portuguese: fulcro
• Spanish: fulcro

References

• fulcrum in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• fulcrum in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• fulcrum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• fulcrum in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin