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You are here: Home / Language / How Did the “Dumbbell” Get its Name and Where Did the Exercising Weight Come From?

How Did the “Dumbbell” Get its Name and Where Did the Exercising Weight Come From?

June 25, 2020 by Karen Hill

A dumbbell is a silent bell devised to strengthen the men who rang very large church bells.

At Canterbury in the Middle Ages, it took twenty-four men to ring one bell.

To build up strength, and develop their skills, novices used a silent or “dumb” bell, which was a heavy weight suspended by a rope from a pulley on a scaffold.

People wanting to build up their physiques soon copied with dumbbells of their own.

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Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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