spinning jenny
- noun
- /ˈspɪnɪŋ ˈdʒɛni/
- Archaic
:
spinning jenny
- Invented in 1764, the spinning jenny was a key innovation during the Industrial Revolution that increased yarn production significantly.
Examples
-
But he makes no mention at all of such crucial inventions as Hargreaves's spinning jenny (1767), Arkwright's water frame (1769), or James Watt's steam engine.
Academic text (1992) -
For example, the manufacture of cloth or textiles had been a major endeavor for thousands of years but changed little until the invention of the spinning jenny, power loom, and flying shuttle.
Academic text (2012) -
The spinning jenny revolutionized the textile industry by allowing one worker to operate multiple spindles at once.
-
Many factories during the Industrial Revolution utilized the spinning jenny to enhance the efficiency of fabric manufacturing.
Synonyms
A device that twists fibers into yarn or thread
A machine that pulls, twists, and winds fibers into yarn
A machine that spins and winds cotton or wool into thread
How Complex
- Specialized
- Specialized
- Archaic
4
3.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
spinning + jenny
The component 'spinning' clearly signals the domain (twisting fibers), so a learner who knows both words would likely infer the phrase relates to spinning. However, 'jenny' is a non-descriptive/historical name (not meaning 'machine'), so the specific sense 'an early multi-spindle machine' is not fully predictable from the parts.
Etymology
Spinning jenny is named after a simple story about a spinning wheel. One popular story says a girl called Jenny accidentally knocked a wheel and it kept spinning, which gave the inventor the idea for a machine that could spin many threads at once. That's why the name now means an early machine that made yarn much faster.