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👩 Female-related 👩‍🏫 Women roles 🧶 A spinning tool
distaff

distaff

1 9.9
A staff that holds wool or flax for hand spinning
  • noun
  • /ˈdɪstæf/
  • Archaic
: husillo
  • She was mistress of the distaff that day and was proud of the steadiness of her spinning, the even quality of the yarn she drew from the spindle.
  • glass distaff

Examples

  • In her hand, she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

    Blog text (14)

  • La Canocchia means the distaff and a distaff is used in spinning and weaving.

  • Letta was helping Ileria, loading a shuttle with thread from a distaff.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Still blushing, Sarai strode to her distaff, gathered up wool and yarn, and rushed into the house.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • "With that, she led him to her spinning chamber, bade him to take up wool and distaff, teasel and spindle, and to sit at her wheel and spin thread.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • In Tracuinum Sanitatis, c. 1385, a "Woman With Distaff Carrying a Basket of Spinach" heads toward a gate, neck muscles drawn taut against the pressure of the basket she carried on her head.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • The woman carefully placed the wool onto the distaff before starting to spin it into yarn.

  • In traditional weaving, a distaff is essential for holding the fibers to be spun.

  • She demonstrated how to load the distaff with flax before using the spindle.

Synonyms

windle
vsdistaff
  • Archaic
9.9

A small tool like a spool that holds wrapped yarn

is a specific staff used to wind wool or flax for hand spinning

Surface Forms

distaff singular
distaffs plural

Etymology

Distaff was the name for the special 'stick' on which wool or flax was wound for spinning; it combines dis- 'woman' with staff 'stick'. That's why distaff still means the tool spinners used to hold their wool.