wool
pronunciation
How to pronounce wool in British English:
UK [wʊl]
How to pronounce wool in American English:
US [wʊl]
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- Noun:
- a fabric made from the hair of sheep
- fiber sheared from animals (such as sheep) and twisted into yarn for weaving
- outer coat of especially sheep and yaks
Word Origin
- wool
- wool: [OE] Wool goes back to Indo-European *wlná, which also produced Latin lāna (source of English lanolin [19]), Czech vlna, Polish wełna, and Welsh gwlān (probable source of English flannel). In prehistoric Germanic it had become *wullō, which evolved into German wolle, Dutch wol, Swedish ull, Danish uld, and English wool.=> flannel, lanolin
- wool (n.)
- Old English wull "wool, fine soft hair which forms the coat of some animals," from Proto-Germanic *wulno (cognates: Old Norse ull, Old Frisian wolle, Middle Dutch wolle, Dutch wol, Old High German wolla, German wolle, Gothic wulla), from PIE *wele- (1) "wool" (cognates: Sanskrit urna; Avestan varena; Greek lenos "wool;" Latin lana "wool," vellus "fleece;" Old Church Slavonic vluna, Russian vulna, Lithuanian vilna "wool;" Middle Irish olann, Welsh gwlan "wool"). Figurative expression pull the wool over (someone's) eyes is recorded from 1838, American English. To be literally dyed in the wool (1725, as opposed to dyed in the piece) is to be so before spinning, while the material is in its raw state, which has a more durable effect; hence the figurative sense "from the beginning; most thoroughly," attested from 1809, and especially, in U.S. politics, from 1830.
Example
- 1. You wouldn 't wear a wool coat to the beach right ?
- 2. We all know that wool is itchy and cotton can shrink .
- 3. The carpets are hand-woven in nepal with tibetan wool dyed by hand .
- 4. He wore a beautiful wool coat and a silk scarf knotted at his throat .
- 5. Samsung expanded from sugar and wool into electrical goods , chemicals and engineering .