throstle

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old English þrostle, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Germanic *þrustlō, possibly altered from or a diminutive of *þurstaz. Cognate with German Drossel, Old Saxon throsla, Old High German droscala.

The spinning machine is named for the songbird, from the sound made when it is working.

Noun

throstle (plural throstles)

1. A song thrush.
   • 1804, Anthony Florian Madinger Willich, James Mease, The Domestic Encyclopaedia: or, A Dictionary of Facts and Useful Knowledge, page 115,

     The throstle is by some believed to be the finest singing bird in Britain, on account of the sweetness, variety, and continuance of its melody.

2. A machine for spinning wool, cotton, etc., from the rove, consisting of a set of drawing rollers with bobbins and flyers, and differing from the mule in having the twisting apparatus stationary and the processes continuous.
   • 1836, James Montgomery, The Theory and Practice of Cotton Spinning, or, The Carding and Spinning Master’s Assistant‎^[1], page 223:

     THE RING THROSTLE.

     A Throstle under the above title has been recently introduced from America, the principal novel feature of which, is a substitute for the flyer and heavy spindle of the common throstle, and for the cone or cape, and the barrel tube of the Danforth throstle.

Translations

song thrush

• Georgian: მგალობელი შაშვი (mgalobeli šašvi)
• German: Drossel (de) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: пе́вчий дрозд m (pévčij drozd)

machine

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

References

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “throstle”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)