Unnumbered source etymology
Original entry ↗The hair of the sheep, llama and some other ruminants. · A cloth or yarn made from such hair. · Anything with a fibrous texture like that of sheep's wool. · A dingy white color inspired by the natural shade of wool.
From Middle English wolle, from Old English wull, from Proto-West Germanic *wullu, from Proto-Germanic *wullō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂. Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian Wulle, German Low German Wull, Dutch wol, German Wolle, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish ull, Danish uld; also Welsh gwlân, Latin lāna, Lithuanian vi̇̀lna, Russian во́лос (vólos), Slovak vlna, Bulgarian влас (vlas), Albanian lesh (“wool, hair, fleece”). Doublet of lana. The vowel development u → o → oo is purely graphical. Modern English generally avoids the string ⟨wu⟩ in favour of ⟨wo⟩, and the resulting woll was then altered to wool (as supposedly better representing the pronunciation).
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
- Root classification mention*h₂welh₁-ine-pro
- Inherited-form mentionwolleenm
- Inherited-form mentionwullang
- Inherited-form mention*wullugmw-pro
- Inherited-form mention*wullōgem-pro
- Inherited-form mention*h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂ine-pro
- Cognate mentionWullestq
- Cognate mentionwolnl
- Cognate mentionWollede
- Cognate mentionuldda
- Cognate mentiongwlâncy
- Cognate mentionlānala
- Cognate mentionvìlnalt
- Cognate mentionво́лосru
- Cognate mentionvlnask
- Cognate mentionвласbg
- Cognate mentionleshsq
- Doublet mentionlanaen
This page abbreviates 5 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
{
"templates": [
{
"name": "root",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ine-pro",
"3": "*h₂welh₁-",
"id": "wool"
},
"expansion": ""
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "wolle"
},
"expansion": "Middle English wolle"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ang",
"3": "wull"
},
"expansion": "Old English wull"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "gmw-pro",
"3": "*wullu"
},
"expansion": "Proto-West Germanic *wullu"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "gem-pro",
"3": "*wullō"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Germanic *wullō"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ine-pro",
"3": "*h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Indo-European *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂"
},
{
"name": "col-top",
"args": {
"1": "2",
"2": "cog"
},
"expansion": "Cognates"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "stq",
"2": "Wulle"
},
"expansion": "Saterland Frisian Wulle"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "nds-de",
"2": "Wull"
},
"expansion": "German Low German Wull"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "nl",
"2": "wol"
},
"expansion": "Dutch wol"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "de",
"2": "Wolle"
},
"expansion": "German Wolle"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "fo,is,nb,nn,sv",
"2": "ull"
},
"expansion": "Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish ull"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "da",
"2": "uld"
},
"expansion": "Danish uld"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "cy",
"2": "gwlân"
},
"expansion": "Welsh gwlân"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "la",
"2": "lāna"
},
"expansion": "Latin lāna"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "lt",
"2": "vìlna"
},
"expansion": "Lithuanian vi̇̀lna"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "ru",
"2": "во́лос"
},
"expansion": "Russian во́лос (vólos)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "sk",
"2": "vlna"
},
"expansion": "Slovak vlna"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "bg",
"2": "влас"
},
"expansion": "Bulgarian влас (vlas)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "sq",
"2": "lesh",
"3": "",
"4": "wool, hair, fleece"
},
"expansion": "Albanian lesh (“wool, hair, fleece”)"
},
{
"name": "doublet",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "lana"
},
"expansion": "Doublet of lana"
}
],
"links": [
[
"wolle",
"wolle#Middle_English"
],
[
"wull",
"wull#Old_English"
],
[
"*wullu",
"Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/wullu"
],
[
"*wullō",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/wullō"
],
[
"*h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂"
],
[
"Wulle",
"Wulle#Saterland_Frisian"
],
[
"Wull",
"Wull#Low_German"
],
[
"wol",
"wol#Dutch"
],
[
"Wolle",
"Wolle#German"
],
[
"Faroese",
"ull#Faroese"
],
[
"Icelandic",
"ull#Icelandic"
],
[
"Norwegian Bokmål",
"ull#Norwegian_Bokmål"
],
[
"Norwegian Nynorsk",
"ull#Norwegian_Nynorsk"
],
[
"ull",
"ull#Swedish"
],
[
"uld",
"uld#Danish"
],
[
"gwlân",
"gwlân#Welsh"
],
[
"lāna",
"lana#Latin"
],
[
"vi̇̀lna",
"vilna#Lithuanian"
],
[
"во́лос",
"волос#Russian"
],
[
"vlna",
"vlna#Slovak"
],
[
"влас",
"влас#Bulgarian"
],
[
"lesh",
"lesh#Albanian"
],
[
"lana",
"lana#English"
]
],
"references": [],
"descendants": [
{
"lang": "Japanese",
"lang_code": "ja",
"word": "ウール",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
],
"roman": "ūru"
},
{
"lang": "Samoan",
"lang_code": "sm",
"word": "vulu",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
}
],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "noun",
"glosses": [
"The hair of the sheep, llama and some other ruminants.",
"A cloth or yarn made from such hair.",
"Anything with a fibrous texture like that of sheep's wool.",
"A dingy white color inspired by the natural shade of wool."
],
"tags": [
"uncountable",
"usually",
"broadly"
],
"recordId": "366319d0f5f65869743103743c0ff7e3af5ac1baca486b555f6d1e66be33477b",
"rawRecordSha256": "b0b208b7f5f3697822e5466646848d130d534f2dd130fb9dc903605f900d81c3",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 32245
}
],
"omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
"templates": 0,
"links": 0,
"references": 0,
"descendants": 0,
"lexicalRecords": 0,
"lexicalSenses": 5,
"glosses": 0
}
}