Spinnan

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Old English verb for drawing out and twisting wool, flax or other fibres into thread ; to make something whirl or revolve rapidly around a central point
2. An archaic verb meaning to twist raw fibres into yarn ; to cause an object to rotate quickly on its own axis
3. Meaning to draw fibres out into a thread by twisting them ; to set something turning swiftly about a fixed centre

Etymology: Old English "spinnan" meant "to spin" in the sense of drawing out and twisting fibres into thread, the same work done by the spinster, whose name once applied to any woman who spun for a living. The verb descends from a Proto-Germanic root shared with German "spinnen" and Dutch "spinnen," and the Old English form was also used of spiders making their webs, a sense English still keeps today. The verb's older sense is preserved in the phrase "to spin a yarn," where the thread-making of the spinning wheel became a metaphor for telling a story. The image of drawing out a long continuous thread carried over easily into talk that runs on and on.

Synonyms: spin, whirl