selvage
.
Searchable Lemmata: selvage (ME), self-egged (ME), selvage (MdE), selvaged (MdE).
Alternate Forms: selfegge, seluage, selue egges, selueges, selvedge, silfegge.
Definitions and Defining Citations:
1a(n.)
Manufacture;
a longitudinal edge or border of a cloth worked during weaving, through which the weft loops, preventing it unravelling (occasionally removed before finishing). Also, a strip at the edge of cloth which is not finished as the rest, intended to be removed or covered by a seam, border (cf sense 2 below) or similar.(ante 1425 still in current use)
Sex: Male, Female Ceremonial: No
Body Parts:
1b(adj.)
Manufacture;
having a selvage. Possibly referring to an ornamental selvage (see sense 2 below).(circa 1375)
Sex: N/A Ceremonial: No
Body Parts:
2(n.)
Decoration;
an ornamental edge or border.(1483 - circa 1830 ?)
1. Item, for xxiiij ellys of sultviche to the same coverlett ... for xxviij elne of seltwiche to the same coverlett, the elne iiij d.
Accounts.
[MED Acc.Howard in RC 61 (467) 1483]
Sex: Male, Female Ceremonial: No
Body Parts:
Etymological Evidence:
Definite, a compound of the reflexive pronoun 'self' + edge, thus literally the 'self-edge, the edge of itself', apparently modelled on Early Mod. Dutch selfegghe or Middle Low German sülfegge, selfegge, of the same etymology and meaning. The adjectival form selvaged has one medieval example (under sense 1b), wihich is the earliest instance of the word in English; further examples of 'selvaged' as past tense form of a derived verb are noted in OED from the eighteenth century.
WF: Compound
Etym Cog:
References:
