Etymologically
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spinner

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 22:55. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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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