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Etymology and origin of the English word spinner

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 1220 Bestiary
Ultimate origin
Old English spinnan
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
English spin
English spinner
From the same root
English spinster ← spin

Pronunciation

  • US: /ˈspɪnɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English spin + -er,[2][3][4] in Middle English spinnere.[5][6] The OED compares Middle Dutch spinnere, now spinner, and Middle High German spinre, now Spinner.[2] The base verb goes back to Old English spinnan (“to draw out and twist fibres into thread”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A spider, especially one that spins a web: about 1220, in the Middle English Bestiary.[2][4] Etymonline dates the word to about 1300.[3]

Semantic evolution

The spider sense was frequent from about 1530 to 1615 and later survived only in dialect or rhetoric;[7][3] Johnson (1755) quoted Shakespeare's "long-leg'd spinners" for a garden spider.[8] The sense of a person who spins cotton or wool appears in Langland's Piers Plowman in 1393;[2] Etymonline notes the word as a surname from the late 13th century, and that it was usually said of women.[3] In the West Riding woollen trade a spinner was also a girl who joined broken threads.[9] Later senses named other things that spin threads or are spun: a silkworm (1598), the spinneret of a spider (1815), a spinning machine (1875) and a cotton-spinning manufacturer (1834),[2] and figuratively one who spins a story or yarn, dated 1621 in the first edition of the OED and 1770 in the current one.[7][2] From the late 18th century the word was also used for things that spin round, such as a top or a ball bowled with spin, and in angling for a mayfly or an artificial fly; a revolving bait followed in the mid 19th century and a spin bowler in the early 20th.[4] In regional English a spinner could be a daddy-longlegs (1848) or the nightjar (1885).[2] Australian slang used it for a fast horse (1895), a sovereign (1907) and the person who tosses the coins in two-up (1910).[10][11] Collins also records it as an informal word for a spin doctor.[12]

Timeline

  • c. 1220 – a spider.[2][4]
  • 1393 – a person who spins thread or yarn.[2]
  • 1598 – a silkworm or other spinning caterpillar.[2]
  • 1621 – a teller of stories, in the first edition of the OED.[7] The current OED dates this sense to 1770.[2]
  • late 18th century – something that spins round; in angling, a mayfly or artificial fly.[4]
  • 1815 – a spider's spinneret.[2]
  • 1834 – a spinning manufacturer.[2]
  • mid-19th century – a revolving fishing bait.[4]
  • 1875 – a spinning machine.[2]
  • 1895 – Australian slang, a fast horse.[10]
  • 1910 – Australian, the person who tosses the coins in two-up.[10]
  • early 20th century – a spin bowler in cricket.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A person or machine that spins thread or yarn; also a manufacturer engaged in spinning.[12][5][2]
  2. (cricket) A ball bowled with spin; also a bowler who bowls such balls.[12][4]
  3. (angling) A lure that revolves when it is drawn through the water.[12][4]
  4. (angling) The adult form of a mayfly or similar fly, or an artificial fly imitating it.[12][5][4]
  5. A streamlined cap fitted over the hub of an aircraft propeller, turning with it.[12][4]
  6. (informal) A spin doctor.[12]
  7. (Australia) The player who tosses the coins in two-up.[4][11][10]
  8. The nightjar.[5][2]
  9. (archaic) A spider, especially one that spins a web.[5][4][2]

Word family

  • money-spinner
  • spinneret

References

  1. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  9. ^ 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)
  10. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  11. ^ a b Moore, Bruce, ed. (2004), The Australian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., Melbourne: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
Cite this entry

“Spinner.” Etymologically, 31 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/spinner. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

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