Q What is the origin of the word “lynch”? – B.V., Orleans, Mass.

A: We get this infamous word from the name of a man, but it has only been in relatively recent times that enough evidence has accumulated to identify that man with any certainty. Quite a few possibilities, however, have been suggested over the years.

One of the first to be identified as the source of “lynch” was a mayor of Galway, Ireland, named James Lynch Fitzstephen. He was supposedly forced in 1493 to carry out the hanging of his own son, a convicted murderer, when no one else would. Apart from the fact that there’s really no evidence to recommend this story, it also fails to explain why we didn’t end up with a verb “fitzstephen” instead of “lynch,” or why “lynch” didn’t enter the language until centuries after Fitzstephen’s death.

Another man given credit (or blame) was Charles Lynch, a planter, justice of the peace and colonel in the militia in Virginia in the late 18th century. Evidence in support of this claim rests on his presiding, with others, over an extralegal court to suppress Tory activity in Virginia during the American Revolution. Extralegal or not, however, there is no evidence to suggest that the court participated in execution without due process of law or as a result of mob action.

Scholars now agree that the most likely suspect is Captain William Lynch (1742-1820). Captain Lynch served with the Virginia militia and presided over a self-created tribunal organized to rid Pittsylvania County of a band of troublesome criminals that had eluded the appropriate authorities.

Lynch and his followers entered into a compact on Sept. 22, 1780. This compact stated the goals, reasons and methods of the group, who eventually became known as the “lynch-men.” By 1782 their code had become known as “lynch’s law,” and subsequently “lynch law.” The first written evidence for “lynch” as a verb dates from 1836.

Q My sister and I were talking recently about a group of striking workers, and she said they “struck” the night before. I suggested that although factually she might be correct, grammatically she was wrong: one should say that they “went on strike.” This provoked quite a debate. Can you clear this up? – D.H., New York City

A: Sorry, but we agree with your sister. “Strike” regularly appears both as a verb and as a noun. The verb is used most often intransitively – “The workers are going to strike” – but is also used transitively – “They plan to strike the company for higher wages.” The noun – “They called a strike” – may be more familiar to your ears, but it didn’t appear in written form until around 1810, nearly half a century after the verb. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the first use of any form of the word to 1768, and the use is identical to your sister’s, with the intransitive verb in the past tense: “This day the hatters struck, and refused to work …”

The verb “strike” is not uncommon. You yourself employ it in your first sentence, for example, when you mention “striking workers.” Perhaps “struck” sounds wrong to you in part because, as you observe, we have a perfectly good alternative expression – “went on strike” – that can be (and often is) used instead. Another reason may be that, unlike the present tense “strike,” the past tense “struck” does not clearly echo the form and pronunciation of the noun.

“Strike” as a verb has fairly straightforward inflected forms: “strike” (present), “struck” (past), “struck” or “stricken” (past participle), and “striking” (present participle). For the sense “go on strike,” the form of the past participle is always “struck,” as in, “The workers have struck.” If you hear your sister say “the workers have stricken,” feel free to correct her again. The form “stricken” is pretty much limited in use to the senses “afflicted suddenly” – as in “stricken with illness” – and “canceled or deleted” – as in “stricken from the record.”

Q I’ve always been puzzled by the term “monkey wrench.” Why “monkey”? Does it really have anything to do with monkeys? – T.K., Norton, Mass.

A: Unlike the mechanical crane, which is named for its resemblance to the bird, the monkey wrench appears to have nothing to do with actual monkeys. While it is vaguely possible the tool was named from the slight resemblance of its business end to a monkey’s jaws, most popular theories hold that it was named for its inventor.

Our files contain many candidates for the honor of having invented the monkey wrench. One theory suggests a British source, a London Blacksmith named Charles Moncke, but most theorists point instead to inventive Americans, whose names are variously given as Monk, Monck, Monky, Monkey, Monckey, Moncay, Moneke and Munkey.

The most popular explanation traces “monkey wrench” to a New England mechanic named Monk who is said to have invented the tool in 1856 while employed in Springfield, Mass. The wrench was at first called by another name, but, according to the story, Monk’s co-workers soon began calling it a “monkey wrench,” and the name stuck.

Our earliest evidence for this explanation, however, comes from an article in the “Boston Transcript” of Winter 1932-33, at an 80-year remove from the time of the invention. The story has been widely told, but no one has yet produced any hard evidence substantiating the existence of the supposed Mr. Monk. We’re afraid that the real story about the origin of “monkey wrench” may never be known.

This column was prepared by the editors of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition. Readers may send questions to Merriam-Webster’s Wordwatch, P.O. Box 281, 47 Federal St., Springfield, MA 01102.