yarn

WOTD - 20 October 2007    

A basket of yarn (twisted fiber)

English

Etymology

From Middle English, from the Old English gearn; which is akin to the Old High German garn (“yarn”), German Garn, and Greek χορδή (chordḗ, “string”); Latin hernia (“rupture”), and the Sanskrit hira (“band”).

Pronunciation

• (RP) enPR: yân, IPA: /jɑːn/, SAMPA: /jA:n/
• (US) enPR: yârn, IPA: /jɑːrn/, SAMPA: /jA:rn/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(r)n

Noun

yarn (countable and uncountable; plural yarns)

1. (uncountable) A twisted strand of fiber used for knitting or weaving.
2. (nautical) Bundles of fibers twisted together, and which in turn are twisted in bundles to form strands, which in their turn are twisted or plaited to form rope.
3. (countable) A story, a tale, especially one that is incredible.

Synonyms

• (story or tale): story, tale

Derived terms

• yarn-beam
• yarn-spinner
• yarnwindle

Related terms

• spin a yarn

Translations

fiber strand for knitting or weaving

Armenian: մանվածք (hy) (manvaçk’) Czech: příze (cs) f. Dutch: garen (nl) n. Esperanto: fadeno (eo) Finnish: lanka (fi), rihma (fi) French: fil (fr) m. German: Garn (de) n. Icelandic: garn (is) n. Irish: abhras (ga) m., snáth (ga) m. Italian: filo (it) m., filato (it) m. Japanese: 糸 (ja) (ito)

Polish: przędza (pl) f., włóczka (pl) f. Portuguese: lã (pt) f. Romanian: fir (ro) n. Russian: пряжа (ru) (pr'áža) f. Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: пре̏дӣво (sh) n., пре̏ђа (sh) f. Roman: prȅdīvo (sh) n., prȅđa (sh) f. Spanish: hilo (es) m., hilado (es) m. Swedish: garn (sv) n.

nautical

Finnish: lanka (fi)

French: corde (fr) f. Polish: skrętka (pl) m.

story

Finnish: tarina, juttu, sepustus Italian: trama (it) f. Japanese: ほら話 (ja) (horabanashi) Polish: opowieść (pl)

Romanian: basm (ro) n., poveste (ro) f. Russian: байка (ru) f., небылица (ru) f. Spanish: cuento (es) m., historia (es) f.

See also

• hank
• twine

Verb

yarn (third-person singular simple present yarns, present participle yarning, simple past and past participle yarned)

1. To tell a story.

Derived terms

• yarner

Translations

To tell a story

Russian: рассказывать (ru) байку (ru)

Anagrams

• nary, n-ary
• Ryan