a cylindrical socket having one or more L-shaped slots, the longer side parallel and the shorter side perpendicular to the axis of the socket, along which a knoblike projection on the object slides in such a way that a twist of the object when fully inserted locks it into place
Word origin
[1890–95]This word is first recorded in the period 1890–95. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: honky-tonk, masochism, neoclassicism, phoneme, takedown