As a noun, a distaff... is a tool used in spinning. It is designed to hold the unspun fibers, keeping them untangled and thus easing the spinning process. It is most commonly used to hold flax, and sometimes wool, but can be used for any type of fiber. Fiber is wrapped around the distaff, and tied in place with a piece of ribbon or string. The word comes from dis in Low German, meaning a bunch of flax, connected with staff...Ironically, we have an antique (distaff-less*) spinning wheel in our living room (from which the Christmas stockings are now hanging), and yet I still didn't know the word. You learn something every day.
The term distaff is also used as an adjective and is used as a descriptor for the female branch of a family (e.g., the "distaff side" of a person's family refer's to the person's mother and her blood relatives). This term developed in the English speaking communities where a distaff spinning tool was used often to symbolize domestic life.
Image: "Queen Berthe instructing girls to spin flax on spindles using distaffs, Albert Anker, 1888"
* "You probably don't have a distaff on your antique spinning wheel because it's a wheel meant for spinning wool." - hat tip to islenskr for this explanation.
How odd - I've only heard "distaff" used to refer to spinning. The association with the female side of the family is completely new to me. A regional quirk? I'm from the south.
ReplyDeleteProbably just a normal variation in experience rather than a regional difference. I think I first heard the term when I lived down in Kentucky, where the word is sometimes used re horses and horse racing.
ReplyDeleteYou probably don't have a distaff on your antique spinning wheel because it's a wheel meant for spinning wool. Distaves, while completely useable for wool, were (and are) most often used for flax. Flax can be spun on a wheel meant for wool and vice versa, but there are also separate wheels available as each material requires different handling. It's a really neat subject - let me know if you want to know more about it and I can point you in the right direction. Or at least tell you what I know. :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting, islenskr. Added to the post. Tx!
ReplyDeleteAnd now you know why Disney's Sleeping Beauty drives spinners nuts. She pricks her finger on the distaff, which, being counter to the terms of the curse, should leave her bright-eyed and bushytailed. Same problem with the litmag "Prick of the Spindle" -- no spindle visible, just a wheel with a distaff.
ReplyDeleteFor me the most familiar use of the term "distaff" was with horse-racing--a "distaff race" being one in which only mares raced.
ReplyDeleteThe painting I find amusing. The girl on the left appears to be contemplating poking the gentlewoman in the posterior with her distaff.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I am reading too much into her expression. Faced with a lifetime of endless distaff handling, I doubt I would find this introduction to such a chore to be as enchanting as the artist portrayed it.