distaff

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English distaf,^[2][3] inherited from Old English distæf,^[4][5][6] formed from Old English *dis- (“bunch of flax”) + stæf (“stick, staff”),^[5][7][8] the second part being the source of staff.^[4][9] The OED treats this analysis as a supposition.^[4] The first part is apparently related to Middle Low German dise (“bunch of flax on a distaff”), also disene,^[3][10][11] Low German diesse,^[4][12][13] and Middle Dutch disen (“to prepare a distaff with flax”),^[7] and to dizen and bedizen.^[4][8][13] Hoad calls it a peculiarly English word.^[9] Bosworth and Toller instead compared Scottish Gaelic dos (“a bush, tuft”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The stick that holds flax for spinning: about 1000, in Ælfric's Glossary, where it glosses Latin colus.^[14][6]

Semantic evolution

Spinning was customarily women's work, so the tool came to stand for that work and then for women in general.^{[14][15][10][8]} The symbolic use goes back to Chaucer, about 1386, and appears several times in Shakespeare.^[4][15] A proverbial to have tow on one's distaff, to have work in hand or trouble in store, is also in Chaucer.^[4][2] By the late 15th century the word could mean the female sex, female authority or the female side of a family,^[14][5][11] in the OED from before 1513, in Fabyan's chronicle.^[4] Barnhart notes that a similar development occurred in other European languages,^[14] and Weekley compares French quenouille, which Cotgrave glossed both as a distaff and as the feminine line in a succession.^[12] Saint Distaff's Day, recorded from the 1640s, was 7 January, the day after the twelve days of Christmas, when women went back to their spinning and other routine work.^[5][15] The phrase distaff side for the female members of a family, opposed to the spear side, dates only from 1848, according to Etymonline, although it affected to be older.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined the word only for the tool, the staff from which flax is drawn.^[16] Ayto calls phrases such as distaff side now fairly archaic,^[8] and Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories cites their use in a 1961 barbecue book as an example of sexual stereotyping.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – Old English distæf, a stick for holding flax in spinning.^[14][6]
• before 1325 – Middle English distaf, in a gloss on Bibbesworth.^[14][2]
• c. 1386 – as the type of women's work, in Chaucer's Monk's Prologue.^[4][5]
• c. 1405 – the phrase to have tow on one's distaff, in Chaucer's Miller's Tale.^[4]
• before 1513 – the female sex, female authority, the female line.^[4]
• 1640s – Saint Distaff's Day, 7 January.^[5]
• 1766 – the part of a hand-operated spinning wheel that holds the flax.^[4]
• 1848 – distaff side, the women of a family.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cleft staff that holds the bunch of flax or wool from which thread is drawn in spinning by hand.^[3][17][4]
2. The corresponding part of a spinning wheel.^[4][11]
3. Women's work, authority or domain.^[3][4]
4. The mother's side of a family; the female line.^[3][4][11]
5. (archaic) A woman; the female sex; a female heir.^[3][11]

Adjective

1. Of or relating to women; female: the distaff players in the club.^[3][17]
2. Of or from the mother's side or the female line: the distaff side of her family.^[3]

Word family

• distaff side

Related words

• dizen
• bedizen
• staff

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
14. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
15. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins