whorl

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English whorle, also wharle, with the early disyllabic forms wharwyl and whorwhil,^[2][3][4] apparently an alteration from Middle English whirle (“whorl of a spindle; a whirl”), the ancestor of whirl.^[2][5][6][3] The OED and the Oxford Dictionary of English add the influence of wharve, Old English hweorfa (“whorl of a spindle”),^[2][7][8] and the OED, the Shorter Oxford and Collins compare early modern Dutch worvel, a variant of wervel.^[2][9][8] Skeat and Weekley derived the word directly from that Old English noun, from hweorfan (“to turn”),^[10][11] and Dictionary.com also gives Old English hwyrfel.^[12] The verb behind that noun is itself probably from Old Norse hvirfla (“to go round, spin”), related to hvirfill (“circle, ring”) and to that Old English verb.^[5][2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small flywheel on a spindle, which keeps or regulates its speed: about 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum, as whorlwyl or whorle.^[2][13] Etymonline dates the word to the mid-15th century.^[5] The OED's first printed quotation is from the Winchester manuscript of that dictionary, of about 1460.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word first named a part of spinning equipment, a turning disc on the spindle.^[2][13][9] Skeat thought the likeness between the disc on a spindle and a ring of leaves close enough to explain the botanical sense.^[10] The botanical sense has two first dates: Barnhart and Etymonline give 1551 or the 1550s,^[13][5] and the OED gives 1688, in R. Holme's Academy of Armory.^[2] A general sense, a coil or curl, especially of something that seems to whirl, is recorded from 1592,^[2] and the Shorter Oxford dates the spiral sense to the late 16th century.^[9] Later uses named the turns of a spiral shell (1828)^[2][5] and a pattern in fingerprints (1880, in H. Faulds's letter in Nature).^[2] The verb, formed from the noun,^[2] is recorded from 1805, in W. Clark's journal of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and is often poetic;^[2] in Scottish mining it meant to draw up by a pulley (1886).^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – a small flywheel on a spindle.^[2][13]
• 1551 – a ring of leaves or flowers around a stem, according to Barnhart.^[13] The OED's first record is from 1688.^[2]
• 1592 – a coil or curl, especially of something whirling.^[2]
• 1805 – verb, to spiral or move in a twisting way.^[2]
• 1828 – one turn of a spiral shell or other spiral structure.^[2][5]
• 1880 – a pattern in fingerprints.^[2]
• 1886 – verb, to draw up by a pulley, in Scottish mining.^[2]
• 1904 – verb, to arrange in whorls.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) A set of leaves, petals or other parts growing in a ring around a stem at one level.^[8][3][2]
2. (zoology) A single turn of a spiral shell, or of another spiral structure.^[8][2]
3. One of the basic patterns of a fingerprint, with ridges forming complete circles one inside another.^[8][2]
4. Anything shaped like a coil or curl: whorls of smoke above the chimney.^[8][2]
5. A small flywheel or pulley on the spindle of a spinning wheel or spinning machine.^[3][2][9]

Verb

1. To turn or move in a spiral; to swirl: Dust whorled across the empty road.^[3][2]
2. To arrange in whorls or spiral shapes.^[3][2]

Word family

• whorled

Related words

• whirl
• wharve

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 r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology