wrist: [OE] The wrist is etymologically the ‘twisting’ joint. The word goes back to prehistoric Germanic *wristiz, which also produced German rist ‘instep, wrist’ and Swedish vrist ‘instep, ankle’. This was derived from the base *writh-, whose wr- sound seems originally to have been symbolic of the action of twisting. Variants of the base lie behind English wreath [OE], wrest [OE], and writhe [OE]; and gaiter may be related. => wreath, wrest, writhe