reel

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English rele, also reel,^[2][3] inherited from Old English hrēol (“reel for winding thread”),^[2][4][5][6] from Proto-West Germanic *hrehul,^[1] from Proto-Germanic *hrehulaz.^[2][4][7] It is cognate with Old Norse hræll (“weaver's rod, spindle”),^[8][9][10] and probably related to hrægl (“garment”), Old High German hregil (“garment”) and Old Frisian hreil (“garment”).^[4][2][7] Outside Germanic, Barnhart, Merriam-Webster and Collins compare Ancient Greek κρέκω (krékō, “to weave, strike a string”) and Latvian krekls (“shirt”), from Proto-Indo-European *krek- (“to weave, beat”).^{[4][8][11][2]} Hoad and the Shorter Oxford, however, find no certain cognates,^[12][13] and the OED, revised in 2009, offers only a possible ablaut variant of the Germanic base of the old word for a garment.^[14] The verb meaning to wind thread, inherited from Middle English relen, was formed from the noun in Middle English.^[14][3][4] The verb meaning to whirl and stagger, also relen in Middle English, is probably from the noun too, from the spinning of a reel.^{[14][3][4][2][6][9]} The Scottish dance, reel, is probably named from that verb or from its noun "a whirling movement", for its lively movements, although the OED calls its origin uncertain;^{[14][4][2][9]} the Scottish National Dictionary takes all the nouns as one word.^[14] ruidhil and the other Scottish Gaelic words for the dance come from Scots.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

A device on which yarn or thread is wound as it is made: in the Old English Antwerp Glossary,^[14] about 1050 in Barnhart.^[4] Bosworth–Toller records it glossing Latin alibrum in Ælfric's Grammar.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The reel for thread was extended to any revolving device for paying out and rewinding a line or cord (1593), the reel on a fishing rod (1688), the flanged spool on which thread is sold (1729) and revolving drums in machines.^[14] The fishing reel dates from 1726 in Etymonline,^[2] which also has the film reel from 1896, the length of film it holds as part of a film, and reel-to-reel tape decks from 1958.^[2] The phrase right off the reel, at once, is American from 1798.^[14] Already in Middle English the verb formed from the noun meant both winding yarn and, of Fortune, turning her wheel.^[3] The verb of motion first meant to whirl or spin around (about 1400, in Patience and Sir Gawain), and in Scotland also to rush about in a wild way.^[14][3] From the 15th century it was used of a person swaying or staggering from a blow (before 1460) or from drink or faintness (1477, in Caxton), and of an army giving way;^[14][2] from about 1475 also of the mind, shaken or bewildered.^[14] A noun reel, a whirl or stagger, came from this verb in 1572,^[14][4][8] and Hamlet's "reels", revels, may be a contraction of revel.^[14] The dance, a lively Scottish country dance, is recorded from before 1585,^[14][4] its music from 1591,^[14][2] and the verb "to dance a reel" from before 1522 in Gavin Douglas's Æneid.^[14] To reel off, to recite fluently, followed in 1835, perhaps from unwinding a line.^[14][2]

Timeline

• c. 1050 – Old English hrēol, a reel for winding thread.^[4][14]
• before 1387 – to wind on a reel, in Piers Plowman.^[4][14]
• c. 1400 – to whirl, spin around.^[14][3]
• before 1460 – to stagger from a blow.^[14]
• 1477 – to sway unsteadily, as from drink.^[14]
• before 1522 – to dance a reel.^[14]
• 1572 – noun, a whirling or staggering movement.^[14][4][8]
• before 1585 – the Scottish dance.^[14][4]
• 1591 – music for the dance.^[14]
• 1593 – a device for paying out and rewinding a line or cord.^[14]
• 1688 – a fishing reel.^[14]
• 1835 – to reel off, to recite rapidly.^[14]
• 1896 – a film reel.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cylinder or frame turning on an axis, on which thread, wire, tape, film or line is wound: a reel of cotton.^[11][8][14]
2. A device attached to a fishing rod for winding and casting the line.^[11][8][14]
3. A length of film wound on one reel, as part of a motion picture.^[11][2]
4. A staggering or whirling movement.^[8][14]
5. A lively Scottish country dance for two or more couples; also music for it.^[8][14][2]
6. (obsolete, 1603–1616) reels: revelry.^[8][14]

Verb

1. To wind thread, line or the like on a reel.^[8][11][14]
2. reel in: to draw in a fish or line by winding the reel.^[8][11][14]
3. reel off: to say or recite rapidly and easily: She reeled off the names of every station on the line.^[11][14][2]
4. To stagger or sway, as from a blow or from drink: The boxer reeled back against the ropes.^[8][14]
5. To whirl or seem to spin; of the head or mind, to be giddy or shaken: Her head reeled at the news.^[8][14]
6. To dance a reel.^[8][14]

Word family

• reelable
• reeler
• one-reeler
• newsreel
• reel-to-reel
• unreel

Related words

• revel
• spool
• bobbin

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f 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)
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
11. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press