wool
.
Searchable Lemmata: wul (OE), wol (ME), wol (OScots), wool (MdE).
Alternate Forms: owlle, wall, wel, whol, wille, wl, wlle, wol, wolle, wolas, wole, wolle, wolles, wullus, woul, woule, wul, wule, wulle, wulon.
Definitions and Defining Citations:
1a(n.)
Raw Material;
animal hair or fibres; particularly the hair of sheep; (as a count noun) the coat or fleece of a sheep; sheepskin. Isidore and most Old English glossators differentiate between wool or lana (L), an unharvested material, and fleece or vellus (L) the shorn product. Also appears in compounds, such as in the ME compounds 'good wool', 'middle wool', upper and middling grades of wool (see wool compounds in MED), and in the terms wool-yarn and wool-thread.(ante 1000 still in current use)
5. Swiðe sweartes lichaman heo wæs for þære sunnan hæto, and þa loccas hire heafdes wæron swa hwite swa wull and þa na siddran þonne oþ þone swuran.
[DOE LS 23 (MaryofEgypt) (006610))]
7. Grecas ne syllað na hyra swynum astorfen flæsc, ac hy lyfað þa fel to sceon and þa hyda and þa hornas and þa wulla doð to nytte, and swa þeah in naht haliglices, and gif hit gelimpð, þat swyn etað astorfen flæsc, oððe henna mannes blod, ne gelefað we na, þæt hy syn forðon to aweorpanne.
[DOE Conf 5 (Mone) (0013 (96))]
Sex: N/A Use: n/a Status: n/a Rank: n/a Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: N/A.
Etymological Evidence:
Definite, Common Germanic and Indo-European.
WF:
Etym Cog:
References: