clutch

Where it comes from

The main clutch family comes from Old English clyccan, to bring together, bend the fingers, or clench. The verb developed the sense of grasping tightly, and the mechanical noun applied that gripping action to a coupling that joins and separates moving parts.

How the meaning developed

The first mechanical clutches were not specifically car parts: the term was used for mill machinery by 1814 and for motor vehicles by 1899. The sports adjective 'clutch' grew from the noun's separate sense of a tight or critical situation. A clutch of eggs has another origin, from a dialect word for a hatching or brood.