felt

Pronunciation

• IPA: /felt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English felt, inherited from Old English felt,^[2][3][4] from Proto-West Germanic *feltu (“something beaten, compressed wool”),^[2][5][6] the source also of Old Saxon filt, Dutch vilt and German Filz.^[3][2][7] Etymonline, Barnhart and Hoad trace it to Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“to thrust, strike, drive”), the root of Latin pellere (“to drive, beat”),^[2][3][5][8] though Klein, citing Walde and Hofmann, doubts the connection with pellere.^[6] The same Germanic base is in the second part of Old English anfilte, the source of anvil,^[6] and Medieval Latin filtrum, the source of filter, is from Germanic.^[2][7][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cloth made of matted wool and fur: Old English felt, about 1000, in Ælfric's Glossary.^[3][10]

Semantic evolution

The verb “to make of felt” is from the early 14th century^[2] or 1325,^[10] and “to press into a feltlike mass” from 1513.^[10] A felt hat is a felt from about 1450,^[10] and a filter of felt from 1527.^[10] A matted mass of hair or fibre is a felt from the 14th century,^[10] and in Scottish and northern dialect a thick growth of weeds.^[11] Felt-tipped pen is from 1953.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – Old English felt (Ælfric).^[3][10]
• 1325 – verb, to make of felt.^[10]
• c. 1450 – a felt hat.^[10]
• 1513 – verb, to mat together.^[10]
• 1953 – felt-tipped pen.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A fabric of matted, compressed animal fibres such as wool or fur.
2. A material resembling this; something made of felt.

Adjective

1. Made of or like felt.

Verb

1. To make into felt; to cover with felt.
2. To press or mat together.

Word family

• felty
• feltlike
• felt-tip pen

Related words

• filter
• anvil
• pulse
• feel

Usage notes

Felt is also the past tense and past participle of feel, a separate word;^[2][12] as an adjective, “that is or has been felt”, it is recorded from 1581.^[10][7] In Yorkshire, Norfolk and Somerset dialect a felt was a raw hide.^[11]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin