towel

Towel comes from Middle English towayle, borrowed from Old French toaille, itself from Medieval Latin toallia, which traces back to Frankish *þwahilu ("cloth"), rooted in Proto-Germanic *þwahaną ("to wash").

The word passed from a Germanic verb meaning "to wash" into a Frankish word for cloth, then traveled through Latin and French before settling into English as the everyday word for a drying cloth.

It's cognate with Old High German dwahila and Dutch dweil ("mop"), and even with Old English þwēan, "to wash" — so the family of words all circles back to the act of cleaning.