On Tenterhooks

More documents

Recommendations

Info

FOREWORD The English language is remarkable in its ability to absorb words and phrases from various sports and pastimes, and in particular, various sectors of industry. With textiles being one of the world's oldest industries with fragments of fabrics from Mesopotamia having been dated over 3,000 years B.C., there has been a significant opportunity for textile terms to move out of their specialized contexts into general usage. When the British textile industry led the world and the mills of Lancashire and Yorkshire, to a large extent, clothed the world, a wide variety of textile words and phrases were in general use as far as ordinary conversation was concerned in most of the Northern cities and Scottish borders. However, with the general decline in the UK of the textile industry and its relocation to other parts of the world, many of these words and phrases are not heard as much now as they used to be, and it is a great credit to the author that he has taken the time and trouble to make this record which defines not only our textile heritage but will help many interested in the etymology of words, possibly more familiar in their childhood, to clarify the derivation. The book will be equally of value to the general public as it is to those who were once involved in the British textile industry. Some of the words in the dictionary will live on much longer than others but I am sure that the title chosen for the dictionary 'On Tenterhooks' is one that will survive much longer than many of the other words contained. B. F. Whitaker B. Sc., C. Text., F.T.I., Comp T. I., F.R.S.A. April 2009
INTRODUCTION Language is not an abstract construction of the learned, or of dictionarymakers, but is something arising out of the work, needs, ties, joys, affections, tastes, of long generations of humanity, and has its bases broad and low, closetotheground. Walt Whitman Slang in America, 1892 Robert Burchfield, the eminent chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, has noted that languages have a preponderance to fragment or to evolve. It is with this in mind that we discover the English language has been infiltrated by words or phrases from languages such as Latin, French, German, Italian as well as many other foreign linguistic contributions. A large number of words and phrases that were absorbed into the English language were originally used in places of work such as farms, factories and foundries. This book is mainly confined to those associated with different kinds of textiles or textile processes. Some had their origins in my home city of Bradford which for a large part of the 20 th century bought and processed two-fifths of all the wool grown in the world and, as a result, became known as 'Worstedopolis', the capital of the world's worsted industry, which sadly is no longer the case today. It is surprising that few key works exist on this subject. One of the best known attempts at recording words, which have been absorbed into the English language, was attempted by F. W. Moody. It was in December 1950 when he wrote one of the first articles on this subject, "Some Textile Terms from Addingham in the West Riding" in the Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society. Words passed down from Anglo-Saxon times include "loom", "heald", "reed" and "shuttle", but, Mr. Moody pointed out, "many of the less essential parts have names taken from the vocabulary of farming and open-air life in general". Weavers seeking names for new pieces of mechanism compared them with familiar objects. Finger-like pieces of metal between which the loom's tappet rods were held were called "rats' tails". A mechanism for suddenly
Page 2 and 3: On Tenterhooks A compendium of text
Page 4 and 5: ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Without the co-oper
Page 8 and 9: Introduction stopping the loom was
Page 10 and 11: On Tenterhooks ARRAS: The French wo
Page 12 and 13: Wool sorting is a skilled procedure
Page 14 and 15: On Tenterhooks War in 1854. The iss
Page 16 and 17: On Tenterhooks BIKINI, TO WEAR A: T
Page 18 and 19: On Tenterhooks general commanded a
Page 20 and 21: On Tenterhooks BROADCLOTH: The orig
Page 22 and 23: On Tenterhooks A Bradford wool ware
Page 24 and 25: On Tenterhooks CARDIGAN, TO WEAR A:
Page 26 and 27: On Tenterhooks in which skulduggery
Page 28 and 29: On Tenterhooks CLOTH, TO WEAR A BLA
Page 30 and 31: On Tenterhooks COAT, TO WEAR A BENJ
Page 32 and 33: On Tenterhooks COTTON KINGDOM: A ph
Page 34 and 35: On Tenterhooks fine cotton and has
Page 36 and 37: On Tenterhooks something that is po
Page 38 and 39: On Tenterhooks a horse blanket. The
Page 40 and 41: On Tenterhooks GREEN, TO WEAR LINCO
Page 42 and 43: well be derived from "hammock doth"
Page 44 and 45: On Tenterhooks INDESCRIBABLES,INEXP
Page 46 and 47: On Tenterhooks KINGDOM, COTTON: A p
Page 48 and 49: On Tenterhooks LUSTRE, BRADFORD: Du
Page 50 and 51: OnTenterhooks lineage. This term re
Page 52 and 53: On Tenterhooks NEEDLE, KNIGHT OF TH
Page 54 and 55: have been corrupted to "noyls" or "
Page 56 and 57:
On Tenterhooks Mark Keighley notes:
Page 58 and 59:
On Tenterhooks PENNISTONE: During t
Page 60 and 61:
On Tenterhooks RAYNES: Like so many
Page 62 and 63:
On Tenterhooks SHAWL, TO SPORT A: T
Page 64 and 65:
On Tenterhooks SHIRTS, THE DIRTY: A
Page 66 and 67:
On Tenterhooks allowed weavers to p
Page 68 and 69:
On Tenterhooks This type of Warping
Page 70 and 71:
On Tenterhooks English towns became
Page 72 and 73:
On Tenterhooks forms in a pink or r
Page 74 and 75:
On Tenterhooks " Togs" was a name g
Page 76 and 77:
On Tenterhooks TWIST, GET ONE'S KNI
Page 78 and 79:
On Tenterhooks describing a tailor
Page 80 and 81:
On Tenterhooks the Swedish Royal Pa
Page 82 and 83:
OnTenterhooks WUZZER A, A textile w
Page 84 and 85:
Grose, Captain Francis. A Classical
Page 86 and 87:
Blue, To wear navy.................
Page 88 and 89:
Dittoes, or a suit of .............
Page 90 and 91:
Linen, The.........................
Page 92 and 93:
Sleeve, To laugh up your...........
show all

On Tenterhooks

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?