shuttle

Definition

A tool used to carry the woof back and forth between the warp threads on a loom.

Etymology

From a merger of two words: * Middle English shutel, shotel, schetel, schettell, schyttyl, scutel (“bar; bolt”), from Old English sċyttel, sċutel (“bar; bolt”), equivalent to shut + -le * Middle English shutel, schetil, shotil, shetel, schootyll, shutyll, schytle, scytyl (“missile; projectile; spear”), from Old English sċytel, sċutel (“dart, arrow”), from Proto-Germanic *skutilaz. The name for a loom weaving instrument, recorded from 1338, is from a sense of being "shot" across the threads. The back-and-forth imagery inspired the extension to "passenger trains" in 1895, aircraft in 1942, and spacecraft in 1969, as well as older terms such as shuttlecock.

Example Sentences

• "My dayes are ſwifter then a weauers ſhuttle, and are ſpent without hope."
• "Like shuttles through the loom, so swiftly glide My feather'd hours, and all my hopes deride!."
• "By placing the sword edgewise, the weaver keeps the countershed open, in order to shoot through the shuttle."