Thrawan

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. An archaic verb meaning to twist, turn, or contort something out of its natural shape
2. An obsolete Old English and Scots verb for twisting or wrenching a thing into a bent or distorted form
3. Describing the act of bending or turning something awry, as an old dialect or historical term for twisting

Etymology: In Old English, "thrawan" meant to twist or turn, not to hurl. The older sense survives in the silk trade: "throwing" silk means twisting raw filaments together into thread, and the mills that did this were called throwing mills. The Scots adjective "thrawn" keeps the same root alive. It describes something crooked or twisted out of shape, and by extension a stubborn, perverse temper, as if a person's disposition had been wrung out of true. The modern sense of hurling through the air appears only in Middle English, likely from the sharp twisting motion of the arm and body involved in flinging something.