Throwsters

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A worker in a silk mill who twists raw silk filaments together to make strong thread
2. Someone employed in the textile trade to spin and twist silk fibres into yarn for weaving
3. A person operating machinery that twists silk strands into a finished thread for cloth

Etymology: "Throwsters" is the plural of "throwster," a word for a person who twists silk or other fibres into thread. The Middle English form was "throwesters," which combines "throw," in its old sense of twisting or spinning thread, with the suffix "-ster," an Old English agent ending that marks a person who performs an action, as in "spinster" or "baxter" (a baker). The surprise lies in the first element. Today "throw" means to hurl something through the air, but in older English it meant to twist fibres together, the sense that gives the silk-twisting trade its name. A throwster was therefore a silk-twister, and the word belongs to a textile vocabulary that has largely disappeared from everyday English.