Reels

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /ɹiːlz/

Definitions

1. Circular devices used to wind and hold thread, film, or wire ; to lose balance or stagger as if affected by dizziness
2. Objects designed to gather or store flexible materials like thread or wire ; to move unsteadily or sway due to disorientation or shock
3. Spinning or rotating cylinders that hold things such as film or string ; to reel or stagger, showing instability or a dizzy motion

Etymology: "Reels" is the plural of "reel", and the plural here is the more useful form to explain, since it names the spinning objects themselves. The noun "reel" came into Middle English from Old English "rēol" or "hrēol", a word for a device that winds thread, rope or line around a rotating frame. Its ancestry runs back to a Proto-Germanic form, *hrehulaz, and further to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to weave" or "to beat", which fits the job of a reel, since it was once used to wind yarn as it was spun or woven. The verb sense, to spin or whirl, grew naturally from that same winding action. Someone who reels is turned round and round, and the reeling of a ship or a drunk is a motion like a wheel's. The noun plural used for spinning objects therefore keeps the older idea of something that turns to gather and wind.

Synonyms: spools, rolls