We all know certain words have come into common use from the textile industry, but there are some surprises out there.
Chetham’s Library in Manchester, UK is the oldest public libraries still in existence in the United Kingdom. It was established by Humphrey Chetham, a sixteenth century textile merchant from Manchester, who left provision in his will for the creation of the library as well as a boys’ school, now a specialist music centre. The building in which the library is housed was built in 1421 for a college of priests and is one of the most complete of the medieval complexes to survive in the English north-west. More of the history of the buildings and the library can be read on the website here.
In 2022 the library published an article about English words that have come from the textile industries, both domestic and industrial. Some of these – woven together, on tenterhooks, spinning a yarn – will be familiar but there are others that are less well-known. The article accompanied an exhibition by the library called “A Weaving of Words”, that allowed visitors to explore the collection in search of tags that described the textile origins of words. It sounds fascinating, not to mention fun! We definitely should be grateful to the humble textile for enriching our lives and language.
Comments
4 responses to “The language of textiles”
Love love love the history of words,Andy!
Thx for this article. I shared with all my teacher friends.
Frieda
Hi Frieda. Aren’t words fascinating? I shall continue to post things like when I find them. There is always something new to learn, isn’t there?
This quote from the article
“In the Yorkshire woollen industry, a medley was produced by dyeing several batches of raw wool in different colours, then spinning them into yarn and weaving them”
describes what you are doing to match Shetland woven cloth. Curious to know if it was a recognized technique all over.
Hi Jean. I shall have to do some more research. I know that it was much used in Scotland and Wales but I do not know if it was unique to the UK.