anneal

Meanings

Verb

• To subject to great heat and then (often slow) cooling, and sometimes reheating and further cooling, for the purpose of rendering less brittle; to temper; to toughen.
• To cool glass slowly, to minimize internal stress.
• To burn colors onto a glass or other surface.
• To make a double-stranded nucleic acid by pairing a single strand with a complementary strand.
• To strengthen or harden.

Noun

• An act of annealing.

Origin

• From Middle English anelen, onelen, from Old English anǣlan, onǣlan, from Proto-Germanic *ana ("on") + Proto-Germanic *ailijaną ("to burn"), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eydʰ- ("to burn"). The word is related to Old English onāl ("that which is burnt, burning#Noun"), Old English āl ("[[fire, burning"), Icelandic eldur ("fire"), Swedish eld ("fire, [[flame#Noun"), Danish ild ("fire").