Woollens

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of fabric made from the fibers of sheep or other animals, commonly used in clothing and textiles
2. Items of clothing made from such fabric designed for warmth and insulation
3. A general term for knitted or woven goods created from yarn made of wool, suitable for cold weather wear

Etymology: "Woollens" is simply the plural of "woollen," an adjective-turned-noun meaning cloth made from wool. The adjective is built from "wool," which descends from Old English "wull," a word shared across the Germanic languages (German "Wolle," Dutch "wol"), and the suffix "-en," which was used in Old English to form adjectives meaning "made of" a material, as in "golden" or "wooden." So a woollen was, in the most literal sense, a thing made of wool. The plural form is the more interesting part of the history. Because "woollen" originally functioned as an adjective, English speakers long used the singular "woollen" for the fabric itself, as in "a bolt of woollen." The noun use, with its plural "woollens," developed later as the word came to name particular kinds of cloth and garments, such as a woollen jumper or a stock of woollens in a shop. The plural is therefore a fairly recent refinement of an older adjectival usage rather than a separate ancient word.

Synonyms: woolen fabrics, knitted items, yarns, textiles, fleece