Picture the thick end of a sword: the grip your hand closes on, the guard across it, the at the very bottom. It is wider than the blade, and that width is the whole point of it. Your hand cannot slip forward past it, and the blade cannot travel further in than it. So the hilt is both the part you hold and the place where going further stops.
可以想成一把劍粗的那一端：讓手握住的握把、橫過來的護手，還有最尾端的圓頭。它比刀身寬，而這個「寬」就是它存在的理由。手不會往前滑到刀刃上，刀刃也不可能插進去超過它。所以 hilt 同時是兩件事：你握住的地方，還有「再過去就沒有了」的那一點。這兩面剛好分別長出這個字的兩個用法。
From the word’s history
The packet traces hilt back through Middle English and Old English hilt to Proto-Germanic, and further to an Indo-European root given as meaning to strike or cut. Read along that line, the word names the held end of a thing made for cutting.
來源把 hilt 從中古英語、古英語 hilt 一路追到原始日耳曼語，再接到一個被記為「砍、切」的印歐語字根。照這條線讀，這個字指的就是「一件用來砍的東西上，讓你握住的那一端」。這條字源是來源自己列出的，不是推測。
Wiktionary, "hilt"
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