Tewing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The process of beating or pulling out plant fibers to separate and soften them before they can be spun into thread
2. Preparing raw plant material for textile use by mechanically working it to loosen and align the fibers
3. Working fibers through beating or drawing motions to make them suitable for conversion into yarn

Etymology: The verb "tew" has two quite separate histories, and the fact that matters most here is the second: in Baltimore African-American Vernacular, "tew" is a pronunciation spelling of "two," so the "tewing" in question is a playful or phonetic rendering of a word already familiar in everyday speech. The surprise is that a numeral's sound has been written down as a verb. The older sense of "tew" is a different word altogether. It is a variant of "tawen," meaning "to taw," or to prepare, dress, or work materials such as leather, and it is related to "taw" in the sense of preparing hides. Its origin is uncertain: it may come from a Germanic base, *teoȝ, that also gave rise to words for rigging and tackle. Connected forms include West Frisian "túch," Dutch "tuig," and German "Zeug," all meaning equipment or gear, so the verb's original sense of preparing and working materials sits close to the idea of tools and tackle.

Synonyms: toiling, labouring