-
Views
-
Cite
Cite
William Sayers, Two Etymologies: Inkle and Natty, Notes and Queries, Volume 56, Issue 3, September 2009, Pages 350–354, https://doi.org/10.1093/notesj/gjp129
Close - Share Icon Share
Extract
IN Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, a servant says of the rogue Autolycas, who is passing himself off as a pedlar:
This is in response to the clown's inquiry as to ‘unbraided wares’. In this miniature catalogue, we are best advised to see in ‘points’ short lengths of lace and further identify ‘cadisses’ as worsted tape as used for garters, and ‘cambrics’ and ‘lawns’ as pieces of fine-spun linen. For the pedlar to be able to transport this merchandise, we should imagine small lengths of trim, rather than bolts of cloth. Our last term, to which this note is devoted, is ‘inkle’, generally understood as linen tape, used for a variety of purposes, both as edging and as ties or straps, drawstrings, belts, headbands, and the like. The Oxford English Dictionary finds inkle first attested in the mid-sixteenth century but notes that its derivation is ‘not ascertained’.2He hath ribbons of all the colours i’ the rainbow; points more than all the lawyers in Bohemia can learnedly handle, though they come to him by the gross; inkles, cadisses, cambrics, lawns …1
Issue Section:
Notes
You do not currently have access to this article.
