the.com/pedal
The unsung hero turning your jittery foot into forward motion or sweet distortion.
means A lever you push with your foot to operate something — a bike, a car, a piano, or a guitar effect.
from From Latin 'pedalis,' meaning 'of the foot,' which traces back to 'pes, pedis' — the Latin word for foot, a deep cousin of English 'foot' and Greek 'pous' (as in 'octopus,' the eight-foot). The word arrived in English by way of French 'pédale,' and the same 'ped-' root still walks through 'pedestrian,' 'pedicure,' and 'centipede.'
- Latin roots
- From pes, meaning foot, like pedestrian.
- Pipe organs
- Foot pedals play the lowest, building-shaking bass notes.
- Guitar effects
- A single stompbox built Hendrix's entire screaming sound.
- Soft pedal
- Piano's una corda shifts hammers to hush the strings.
- Wah-wah
- Invented by accident while engineers tweaked an amp circuit.
tour de france — cyclists pedal 3,500 km over 21 stages across france annually since 1903
velodrome sprint — track cyclists pedal at 60+ km/h in 200m races at olympic games
watt bike power test — athletes pedal stationary bikes to measure maximum watts output for fitness assessment