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clewe. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
clewe, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
clewe in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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Middle English
Etymology
From Old English clīewen,[1] from Proto-Germanic *kliuwīną, *klewô.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈkliu̯(ə)/, /ˈkliu̯ən/
Noun
clewe (plural clewes)
- A clew (“lump or sphere of thread or yarn”).
- A string of yarn for finding a path.
c. 1386–1388 (date written), Geffray Chaucer [i.e., Geoffrey Chaucer], “The Legende of Good Women: The Legende of Ariadne of Athenes”, in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, , Richard Grafton for]
Iohn Reynes , published
1542,
→OCLC,
folio ccxxvi, verso, column 1:
Therto haue I a remedye in my thought / That by a clewe of twyne, as he hath gone / The ſame way he may returne anone / Folowyng alwey yͤ threde as he hath come.- I’ve thought of a solution for that: / by a string of twine, just as he’s gone, / He can soon return the same way, / Always following the thread the way he came.
Descendants
References