turnstile
noun

- a device that controls the way into or out of a building, room, or area of land, especially one that you have to pay to enter. It is a post with a number of short poles sticking out from it that have to be pushed round as each person walks through the entrance.

Cambridge Dictionary

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ORIGIN

“Turn” is from the late Old English (c. 900 to 1170) turnian, from Latin tornare “to polish, round off, fashion, turn on a lathe,” from tornus “lathe,” from Greek tornos lathe, tool for drawing circles”.

“Stile”, an arrangement to allow persons to pass but not sheep and cattle, is from the Old English stigel, stile, a device for climbing, ladder, related to stigen to climb, from Proto-Germanic.

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EDISON’S CURIOUS TURNSTILE

Thomas Edison enjoyed showing visitors around his summer residence, pointing out the estate’s many labour-saving inventions. At one point, before returning to the house, guests were guided through a curious turnstile. As considerable effort was required to turn it, a guest one day asked Edison why he had produced such a cumbersome device.

“Well, you see,” Edison replied, “everyone who pushes the turnstile around pumps eight gallons of water into the tank on my roof.”

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SYNONYMS

gate, barrier, entrance, park entrance, postern, revolving door, tollbar, entryway, stile, TURNSTILE, wicket, wicket gate, lychgate, five-barred gate, moon gate, kissing gate

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“20.96 million visitors passed though Walt Disney TURNSTILES in 2019 - at the end of 2020 that number was down to 6.94 million.”

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HERZLICHEN DANK to all readers helping me keep OWAD alive with single or monthly donations at:

https://donorbox.org/please-become-a-friend-of-owad-3

Paul Smith