Hanks

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A coiled skein of yarn or thread tied in a loop ; a small ring or loop that clips a sail onto a rope or wire stay
2. A loosely wound bundle of yarn or thread, often tied at intervals ; a metal ring or loop that attaches a sail to a supporting stay
3. A twisted coil of wool, cotton or thread ; a fastening loop on a sailing vessel that holds the sail to a stay

Etymology: "Hanks" is the plural of "hank", a word that came into Middle English in the 14th century from a Scandinavian source. Its ancestor was the Old Norse "hǫnk", a word tied to bending, and it shares a root with "haki", meaning something bent. The same ancestry links it to the Proto-Germanic "hakô", meaning "hook", which is where the idea of a bent or looped thing comes from. The sense of a loosely wound coil of yarn or thread grew naturally from that picture of something looped and gathered. The sailing sense, a metal ring or loop attaching a sail to a stay, follows the same logic: a looped fitting that hooks onto a rope. Hank also has an English cousin in "hang", since Old English "hangian" belongs to the same family of words. Each reflects the same basic idea of something hooked, suspended, or gathered by a loop.

Synonyms: skein, coil, loop