Greek for 'the bent thing' that grips the seabed — its silent 'h' was a Renaissance insertion that never belonged.
A heavy device, typically of metal, attached to a ship by a cable and lowered to the seabed to hold the vessel in place; by extension, anything that provides stability or security.
From Old English 'ancor,' from Latin 'ancora' (an anchor), from Greek 'ankura' (an anchor, a hook), from 'ankos' (a bend, a hollow, a glen), from PIE *h₂enk- (to bend). The anchor is etymologically 'the bent thing' — a hook or curved device that grips the seabed. The silent 'h' in the modern English spelling was added by scribes in the sixteenth century by false association with Greek 'ankhos,' but the original Latin and Greek spellings had no 'h.' Key roots: *h₂enk- (Proto-Indo-European: "to bend").
The 'h' in 'anchor' is a ghost — it was added by Renaissance scholars who mistakenly connected the word to Greek words containing 'kh' (chi). The original Latin 'ancora' and Greek 'ankura' had no 'h.' The silent letter has persisted for five centuries as a monument to overcorrection.