Twyle

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An obsolete term for a woven fabric, such as linen cloth or a towel used for drying or wiping
2. A old-fashioned word for a piece of woven linen or cloth, typically one used as a towel
3. Archaic name for a length of coarse woven material, especially linen used for wiping or drying

Etymology: Twyle is a Middle English word for a cloth used to dry linen or wipe hands, and it descends from the same Germanic root as "towel." The Old English ancestor was probably "twæġl" or something very close to it, a cloth for drying and wiping, and the Middle English form kept that sense with little change. Towel itself came into English later, borrowed from Old French "toaille," which had taken the root from a Frankish word. Twyle and towel are therefore doublets: two forms of one word that reached English by different routes, one inherited directly from Old English and the other borrowed centuries afterward. Twyle faded from use in the later Middle Ages, leaving towel as the common term.