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Origin and history of teasel

teasel(n.)

also teazel, teazle, type of thistle-plant, native to temperate Europe and Asia, cultivated for use in fulling cloth and for medicinal purposes, Middle English tesel, Old English tæsel "large thistle used in teasing cloth," from Proto-Germanic *taisilo (source also of Old High German zeisala), which is related to the source of tease (v.), which is from Old English tæsan "to pluck."

As a verb from 1540s, "raise (the nap of cloth) with teasels." Related: Teaseled; teaseler (14c.); teaseling. An Old English name for wild teasel was wulfes camb "wolf's comb."

Entries linking to teasel

tease(v.)

formerly also teaze, Middle English tesen "pull apart and clean" adhering fibers of raw flax, wool, etc., from Old English tæsan "pluck, pull, tear; pull apart, comb" (fibers of wool, flax, etc.), from Proto-Germanic *taisijan (source also of Danish tæse, Middle Dutch tesen, Dutch tezen "to draw, pull, scratch," Old High German zeisan "to tease, pick wool"). Compare teasel.

The original action is running thorns through wool or flax to separate, shred, or card the fibers. The figurative meaning "vex, worry, annoy" someone by petty requests or silly trifling (sometimes done in good humor) is attested by 1610s. For similar sense development, compare heckle. The hair-dressing sense in reference to back-combing is recorded from 1957 (teasing in this sense is by 1923). Related: Teased; teasing; teasingly.

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    card
    (mid-14c. in surname Cardmaker), from Old French carde "card, teasel," from Old Provençal cardo or some other Romanic source...The English word probably also comes via Anglo-Latin cardo, from Medieval Latin carda "a teasel," from Latin carduus....
    herb
    c. 1300, erbe "non-woody plant," especially a leafy vegetable used for human food, from Old French erbe "grass, herb, plant fed to animals" (12c., Modern French herbe), from Latin herba "grass, an herb; herbage, turf, weeds" (source also of Spanish yerba, Portuguese herva, Italia
    carcass
    "dead body of an animal," late 13c., from Anglo-French carcois, from or influenced by Old French charcois (Modern French carcasse) "trunk of a body, chest, carcass," and Anglo-Latin carcosium "dead body," all of unknown origin; original form uncertain. It may have been assimilate
    resign
    late 14c., "give up (something), surrender, abandon, submit; relinquish (an office, position, right, claim)," from Old French resigner "renounce, relinquish" (13c.), from Latin resignare "to check off, annul, cancel, give back, give up," from re-, here perhaps denoting "opposite"
    shadow
    Middle English shadwe, from Old English sceadwe, sceaduwe "shade, the effect of interception of sunlight; dark image cast by someone or something when interposed between an object and a source of light," oblique cases ("to the," "from the," "of the," "in the") of sceadu (see shad
    plot
    late Old English plot "small piece of ground of defined shape," a word of unknown origin. The sense of "ground plan," and thus "map, chart, survey of a field, farm, etc." is from 1550s. Plat is a Middle English collateral form. The meaning "a secret, plan, fully formulated scheme
    silver lining
    a "bright side" which proverbially accompanies even the darkest trouble; by 1843, apparently from oft-quoted lines from Milton's "Comus," where the silver lining is the light of the moon shining from behind the cloud. Was I deceived? or did a sable cloud Turn forth her silver
    Atlantic
    early 15c., Atlantyke, "of or pertaining to the sea off the west coast of Africa," from Latin Atlanticus, from Greek Atlantikos "of Atlas," adjectival form of Atlas (genitive Atlantos) as used in reference to Mount Atlas in Mauritania (see Atlas). The name has been extended since
    scramble
    1580s (intransitive), "make one's way by clambering, etc., struggle or wriggle along," also "strive with others or jostle and grasp rudely for a share or for mastery;" a word of obscure origin, perhaps a nasalized variant of scrabble (v.) "to struggle; to scrape quickly." OED poi
    heredity
    1530s, "inheritance, succession," from French hérédité, from Old French eredite "inheritance, legacy" (12c.), from Latin hereditatem (nominative hereditas) "heirship, inheritance, an inheritance, condition of being an heir," from heres (genitive heredis) "heir, heiress" (from PIE

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