Purled

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Moved in a smooth, curling, or swirling flow like gentle water currents ; adorned or edged with a narrow, twisted, or spiral design often found in fabric or metalwork
2. Flowed in a soft, rippling manner suggestive of small waves or spirals ; embellished with a pattern formed by looping or twisting threads or shapes
3. Passed along in a flowing, curling movement typical of streams or smoke ; decorated with a spiral or twisted motif usually on cloth or ornamental objects

Etymology: "Purled" is the past tense of "purl," and the verb's history is murky. One candidate traces it to Old Norse "purla," meaning "to babble," which may connect to a wider Germanic family of sounds for gushing and bubbling water. A second line links it to Scots and dialect "pirl," meaning to twist, ripple, or whirl, and to Middle English "pirle," a whirligig or spinning toy, with a similar Italian word for a whipping top. Those spinning senses fit the curling motion that the verb describes. A third suggestion is that the name comes from the look of water covered in bubbles, which can seem pearl-like. That image of a surface of tiny rounded beads sits comfortably beside the sense of water rolling over itself in curls, so the meaning of the verb may have been shaped by appearance as much as by sound.

Synonyms: swirled, twisted