the.com/stapleremover
The tiny steel jaws that undo your commitment to a single sheet of paper.
means A small handheld office tool, typically with two pairs of metal teeth or a single squeezing jaw, used to pry staples out of paper without tearing it.
from A transparent compound of 'staple' + 'remover.' 'Staple' is an old Germanic word — related to Old English 'stapol,' meaning a post, pillar, or support — which over centuries narrowed to mean the U-shaped metal fastener whose two legs 'stand' through the paper. 'Remover' is simply 'remove' (from Latin 'removēre,' to move back or away, via Old French) plus the agent suffix '-er.' So the name is exactly what it does: the thing that moves the little standing staple back out — a 20th-century coinage that arrived alongside the office stapler it was built to undo.
- nickname
- Often called a staple puller or de-stapler
- design
- The classic version literally bites like fanged teeth
- invented
- Patented in the United States in 1932
- physics
- Uses opposing levers to pry, not cut
- hazard
- Loose staples are a notorious office injury
swingline staple remover — iconic claw-shaped office tool, billions sold since 1939
bostitch staple remover — competitor brand, standard red plastic version in most us offices