means a slender, pointed tool—usually metal—used for sewing, knitting, injecting, or pointing, narrowing to a fine tip at one end.

from From Old English 'nǣdl,' tracing back to a Proto-Germanic root (compare German 'Nadel,' Dutch 'naald') and ultimately a Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'to sew' or 'to spin'—the same thread, possibly, that runs through Latin 'nere' (to spin) and Greek 'nēma' (thread). The word has always been about the act of joining things by piercing them, long before steel ever touched skin or syringe.