yarn

English

WOTD – 20 October 2007    

A basket of yarn (twisted fiber)

Etymology

From Middle English yarn, from the Old English ġearn (“yarn, spun wool”), from Proto-Germanic *garną (“yarn”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰorn-, *ǵʰer- (“tharm, guts, intestines”). Akin to West Frisian jern, Dutch garen (“yarn”), German Garn (“yarn”), Danish garn, Swedish garn (“yarn, thread”), Icelandic garn (“yarn”), Latin hernia (“rupture”), Ancient Greek χορδή (chordḗ, “string”), Sanskrit  (hira, “band”). Cf. also the obsolete doublet garn.

Pronunciation

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

• Arabic: خيط (ar) (xayṭ) m

  Egyptian Arabic: دوبارة (dubara) f, خيط (xéṭ) m, (wool) بكرة (bakara) f

• Armenian: մանվածք (hy) (manvaçk’)
• Belarusian: пража (be) (práža) f
• Bulgarian: прежда (bg) (préžda) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 紗線 (cmn), 纱线 (cmn) (shāxiàn), 紗 (cmn), 纱 (cmn) (shā)

• Czech: příze (cs) f
• Danish: garn (da) n
• 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) (いと, ito)
• Korean: 실 (ko) (sil)
• Macedonian: предиво (mk) (prédivo) n, преѓа (mk) (préǵa) f

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: garn (nb) n

  Nynorsk: garn (nn) n

• Old English: ġearn (ang) n
• Polish: przędza (pl) f, włóczka (pl) f
• Portuguese: lã (pt) f
• Romanian: fir (ro) n
• Russian: пряжа (ru) (prjáža) f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пре̏дӣво (sh) n, пре̏ђа (sh) f

  Roman: prȅdīvo (sh) n, prȅđa (sh) f

• Slovak: priadza (sk) f
• Slovene: preja (sl) f
• Spanish: hilo (es) m, hilado (es) m
• Swedish: garn (sv) n
• Ukrainian: пряжа (uk) (prjáža) f
• Vietnamese: sợi (vi)

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)
• Macedonian: приказна (mk) (príkazna) f
• Polish: opowieść (pl)

• Romanian: basm (ro) n, poveste (ro) f
• Russian: байка (ru) (bájka) f, небылица (ru) (nebylíca) 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

• Macedonian: раскажува (mk) (raskážuva)
• Russian: рассказывать (ru) (rasskazyvatʹ) байку (ru) (bajku)

Anagrams

• nary, n-ary
• Ryan