lathe

lathe¹ division of Kent

Etymology

The division of Kent is inherited from Middle English lathe,^[5] inherited from Old English lǣþ (“landed property, district”),^{[5][6][7][3][8]} corresponding to Old Norse láð (“landed possession, land”),^[7][1][2] from Proto-Germanic *lǣþom.^[7][9] According to some scholars it is cognate with unlǣde (“wretched”) and with a Gothic word for poor, perhaps literally "without landed possessions".^[7][1] Klein and Merriam-Webster Unabridged add Ancient Greek λάτρον (látron, “pay, hire”) as a probable cognate.^[8][6] The OED regards the identity with the Old Norse word as almost certain, but does not exclude a coalescence in Kentish use with words such as leið (“a court, judicial assembly”) and mótlǽðu (“attendances at a moot”).^[7] A short vowel in the spelling lathe might point instead to a link with laðian (“to summon”), but the OED thinks the form was probably influenced by early documents.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

One of the districts of Kent, in an Old English charter printed in Birch's Cartularium Saxonicum,^[7] which speaks of the lathe of Aylesford.^[10][7] Hoad dates the Kentish word to the 12th century.^[1]

Semantic evolution

The Old English word also had the general sense "land": a legal formula pairs it with land by alliteration, like the common phrase land ok láð in Old Norse.^[7] The OED therefore derives the Kentish term from "landed possession", the lathe of Aylesford being the territory under a jurisdiction attached to that manor.^[7] In Middle English the word could mean a district in a county and also its court, and it is applied to the court of the Rape of Hastings in 1409.^[5] Later the lathes numbered five, each with several hundreds:^[7][3] Sutton-at-Hone, Aylesford, Scray, St Augustine's and Shepway,^[11] though Klein notes that there were originally six.^[8] The word survived in the name of an annual court at Dymchurch in Romney Marsh, which elected a bailiff.^[11]

Timeline

• late Old English – a district of Kent; also, in general, land.^[7][10]
• 1339 – le Lathe of Shipway, in Kent, with the spelling that the OED records from the 14th century.^[5][7]
• 1392–3 – lathes listed with wapentakes, hundreds and rapes.^[5]
• 1409 – the court of the Rape of Hastings, called le lathe.^[5]
• 1876 – a lathe court held at Dymchurch.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) One of the administrative districts of Kent, each containing several hundreds.^{[6][7][3][11]}
2. The court of such a district; in Kent, an annual court held at Dymchurch to elect a bailiff.^[5][11]

lathe² machine for turning

Etymology

The machine for turning is inherited from Middle English lathe, also lath,^[5][6] probably borrowed from Old Danish lad (“stand, supporting framework; perhaps originally a pile, heap”),^{[3][1][12][6]} a Scandinavian word that goes back to Old Norse hlað (“stack, pile”),^[3][1][13] which is related to hlaða (“to load”), and so to lade.^[3][13][8] Compare Danish drejelad (“turning lathe”), savelad (“saw bench”) and væverlad (“loom, weaver's batten”).^[13][7][14] The OED calls its history obscure: the Danish compounds are cited only from the 15th–16th centuries, a native cognate in Old English would have had d, and if the likeness to the Danish word is not accidental, the English word must go back to the Danish settlements.^[7] The OED does not wholly exclude a modification of lath, since the older turning lathe worked by a spring-lath overhead, and Weekley suggests the same;^[7][2] it rejects Old Norse lauð, often given as the source, which is known only in compounds as a poetic word for gold.^[7] Hoad takes the 17th-century variant lare as a parallel borrowing.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A device used by coopers, perhaps a turning lathe: 1310, in a London document in Riley's Memorials of London, which also mentions lathestokkes, perhaps the device's framework.^[5][13] The OED's first record is much later, of a scaffold in 1476.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word's early sense seems to be a general one, a supporting frame or stand: the batten of a handloom about 1450,^[5] and in 1476 "a lath made of timber", for a new sepulchre, in the records of St Mary's Ratcliffe.^[5][7] The specific reference to the turning machine is first certain in Cotgrave's dictionary of 1611,^[7][13] and Hoad likewise dates that sense to the 17th century.^[1] Johnson (1755) defined it as the tool of a turner, by which he shapes his material with the chisel.^[15] The potter's lathe, with a revolving horizontal disc, is recorded from 1773,^[7] and the verb only from about 1903.^[6]

Timeline

• 1310 – a device used by coopers, perhaps a turning lathe.^[5][13]
• c. 1450 – the movable batten of a handloom.^[5] The OED first records this sense before 1634.^[7]
• 1476 – a supporting structure, a stand or scaffold.^[7][5]
• 1611 – a machine for turning wood, metal or ivory, in Cotgrave.^[7][13]
• 1773 – a potter's machine with a revolving horizontal disc.^[7]
• c. 1903 – verb, to cut or shape on a lathe.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A machine that rotates a piece of wood or metal about a horizontal axis against a fixed cutting tool: The turner shaped the table legs on a lathe.^[16][6][7]
2. A machine with a revolving disc for throwing and turning pottery; a potter's lathe.^[7][3]
3. (weaving) The movable swing-frame or batten of a loom.^{[6][7][3][11]}
4. (obsolete) A supporting structure, stand or scaffold.^[7][5][1]

Verb

1. To cut or shape something on a lathe.^[16][6][17]

Word family

• turret lathe
• engine lathe
• pole lathe
• capstan lathe