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Etymology and origin of the English word purl

Pronunciation

purl1 twisted thread, knitting stitch

Confidence
Uncertain
First attested
1394 Calendar of Plea and Memoranda Rolls of London
Ultimate origin
English pirl

Etymology

The word for the twisted thread and the stitch is of uncertain origin.[2][3][4] It is apparently from English from the verb pirl (“to twist thread”): Collins, Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster Unabridged derive it so,[5][6][7] and the OED takes the two as ultimately related, although that verb is recorded later, from 1523.[2] Barnhart and Etymonline connect them further with Middle English pirlyng (“revolving, twisting”), recorded by Barnhart from 1448–49.[3][8] Weekley and Partridge trace the verb to Italian pirlare (“to twirl round”), from pirolo (“spinning top”), which they connect with pirouette;[9][10] Klein names pirolare.[11] The OED, Hoad and Etymonline doubt that all the senses show one word, especially for the stitch.[2][4][8] The OED suggests that the knitting sense may have arisen from the tiny loops the thread makes on the back of the fabric.[2] The originally Scots and northern form pearl is apparently a variant, perhaps by association with the gem because of the look of the loops.[2] Johnson, following Minshew, took the word as a contraction of purfle,[12] which the OED thinks unlikely.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Thread or cord made of twisted loops, especially of gold or silver wire, used for bordering and embroidering: 1394, in the Calendar of Plea and Memoranda Rolls of London.[2][7] Barnhart, with the same date, glosses it as a bordering or frilling of twisted loops, and dates the metallic thread to 1535.[3]

Semantic evolution

As a verb it meant to embroider or edge with such thread from 1518, in Henry VIII's household accounts,[2][7] a date Barnhart gives as 1526.[3] In 1564 the noun is used of the small loops worked in lace as an edging, perhaps by extension or perhaps directly from the twisting of the loops.[2] From 1593, in Nashe, it meant a pleat in the ruff of a garment, a fashion of the early 17th century,[2] and Bacon applied it in 1626 to the fine frilling on a petal or leaf.[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as an embroidered and puckered border.[12] The knitting sense is the one that has lasted: the OED now finds the noun in 1655,[2] earlier than the 1825 given by Barnhart,[3] and the verb before 1825, in Forby's East Anglian vocabulary.[2][3] Wright records the noun for an edging, border or fringe in Worcestershire and East Anglia.[13]

Timeline

  • 1394 – thread or cord of twisted loops, especially of gold or silver wire.[2][3]
  • 1518 – verb, to embroider or edge with such thread (obsolete by 1688).[2][7]
  • 1564 – small loops worked in lace as an edging.[2]
  • 1578 – verb, to pleat or frill.[2]
  • 1593 – a pleat in a ruff.[2]
  • 1626 – a fine frilling on a petal or leaf (obsolete by 1720).[2]
  • 1655 – a knitting stitch, the inverse of the knit stitch.[2] Barnhart first records it in 1825.[3]
  • before 1825 – verb, to knit with this stitch.[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A basic knitting stitch, the reverse of the knit stitch; also called purl stitch.[5][6][2]
  2. A decorative border of small loops, as on lace or braid.[5][6][2]
  3. Gold or silver thread or wire used for embroidery or edging.[5][7][2]
  4. (historical) A pleat or frill in a ruff.[2][7]

Verb

  1. To knit with a purl stitch: She purled the second row of the scarf.[5][7][2]
  2. To edge or finish with lace, embroidery or loops.[14][5][6]
  3. (obsolete, 1518–1688) To embroider with gold or silver thread.[2][15]

Word family

  • purl stitch

purl2 to flow with a murmur

Confidence
Disputed
First attested
1552 before 1552, J. Leland's Itinerary
Ultimate origin
English pirl

Etymology

The word for the murmuring flow is of uncertain origin.[2][6][16] The OED thinks the verb is probably from English a variant of pirl (“to ripple, swirl”), which it records in that sense from 1538, and that the noun grew out of the same word, though it allows that either may be a separate imitative formation.[2] An imitative origin is favoured by Etymonline, Klein, Weekley, the Shorter Oxford, the Oxford Dictionary of English and Hoad.[8][11][9][15][16][4] They compare Norwegian purla (“to bubble, gush out”), a regional word of Bergen, and Swedish porla (“to murmur, bubble”), recorded from 1600.[2][15] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Barnhart take the English word as perhaps from a Scandinavian source,[7][3] and Partridge as of Scandinavian origin and probably echoic.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small stream flowing with a swirling motion: before 1552, in J. Leland's Itinerary.[2][7] The Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford put this use in the early 16th century,[16][15] and Barnhart has an earlier perle, a surge of water, from before 1500.[3]

Semantic evolution

The verb followed the noun for a stream, in Sidney's Astrophel and Stella, before 1586, where it describes water flowing in a swirling motion with a murmuring sound.[2][3] Shakespeare soon extended it, in Lucrece (1594), to breath or smoke rising in a swirl,[2][7] and the same use came to cover music and voices issuing softly.[2] Herrick used it transitively in 1648 for uttering with a soft murmur, a rare use.[2] The noun for the sound or action of the water is recorded from 1650, in H. Vaughan.[2][3] The noun for the stream itself is now only a rare regional word of Lincolnshire.[2]

Timeline

  • before 1552 – noun, a small stream with a swirling flow.[2][7]
  • before 1586 – verb, of water, to flow with a swirl and a murmuring sound.[2][3] Etymonline dates it to the 1580s.[8]
  • 1594 – verb, of breath or smoke, to rise in a swirling stream.[2]
  • 1648 – verb, transitive, to utter with a soft murmur.[2]
  • 1650 – noun, the action or sound of water flowing in this way.[2][3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. Of water, to flow with a swirling motion and a soft murmuring sound: The creek purled between the rocks.[5][7][2]
  2. Of breath or smoke, to rise in eddies; of a voice or music, to issue softly.[2][7]
  3. (rare) To utter with a soft, murmuring sound.[2]

Noun

  1. A swirling movement of water, or the murmuring sound it makes; a gurgle.[5][7][2]
  2. (regional, rare) A small swirling stream; a rill.[2][7]

Word family

  • purling

Usage notes

An old drink, ale or beer infused with wormwood or other bitter herbs and later hot beer mixed with gin, is recorded from 1659.[2][7][15] Its origin is unknown to Merriam-Webster and Weekley,[7][9] the OED suggests a transferred use of the noun for a stream,[2] and Klein perhaps another spelling of pearl.[11] A colloquial verb meaning to overturn or tumble head over heels (1856), with a noun for a heavy fall (1825), is a variant of pirl.[2][7][17]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  6. ^ a b c d e Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  10. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  11. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ 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)
  14. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  15. ^ 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
  16. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  17. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
Cite this entry

“Purl.” Etymologically, 6 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/purl. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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