An anvil is a heavy metal block on which metals are hammered and shaped, usually by a blacksmith.
From Old English "anfilte" or "anfilt," related to a Germanic root meaning "something on which one hammers." The word has stayed close to its original meaning for over a thousand years.
Your own body has "anvils"—one of the tiny bones in your middle ear is called the anvil (incus) because of its shape. So every time you hear something, sound is literally hammering on an internal anvil.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.