wool

Meaning

1. The hair of the sheep, llama and some other ruminants.
2. A cloth or yarn made from such hair.
3. Anything with a fibrous texture like that of sheep's wool.
4. A fine fiber obtained from the leaves of certain trees, such as firs and pines.
5. (obsolete) Short, thick hair, especially when crisped or curled.
6. Yarn, including that made from synthetic fibers.
7. A woolly back; a resident of a satellite town outside Liverpool, such as St Helens or Warrington. See also Yonner.
8. (slang) A marijuana cigarette or cigar laced with crack cocaine.

Concepts

wool

fur

hair

fleece

woolen

woollen

coat

cotton

down

feathers

plumage

feather

woolly

knitting wool

thread

worsted

wooly

lambswool

animal hair

pelt

skin

fiber

filament

vicuna

long staple

suiting

woolens

staple

felt

nap

pile

erio

sheep’s wool

wool fabric

villa

fine hair

croppy hedginʼs

hedginʼs

woollen cloth

threads

yarn

wool yarn

batting

body hair

Pronounced as (IPA)

/wʊl/

Etymology

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, Norwegian ull; also Welsh gwlân, Latin lāna, Lithuanian vìlna, 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).

Sentences

He paid for the wool and asked the shepherd to come back the following year .

During the medieval period it became a centre for the wool trade .