clewe
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Middle English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Old English clīewen,[1] from Proto-Germanic *kliuwīną, *klewô.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]clewe (plural clewes)
- A clew (“lump or sphere of thread or yarn”).
- A string of yarn for finding a path.
- c. 1386–1388 (date written), Geffray Chaucer [i.e., Geoffrey Chaucer], “The Legende of Good Women: The Legende of Ariadne of Athenes”, in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London: […] Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], published 1542, →OCLC, folio ccxxvi, verso, column 1:
- Therto haue I a remedye in my thought / That by a clewe of twyne, as he hath gone / The ſame way he may returne anone / Folowyng alwey yͤ threde as he hath come.
- I’ve thought of a solution for that: / by a string of twine, just as he’s gone, / He can soon return the same way, / Always following the thread the way he came.
Descendants
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ “cleue, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 5 August 2018.
Categories:
- Middle English terms inherited from Old English
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- Middle English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
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