distaff
(ˈdɪstɑːf, -æ-)
Forms: 1 distæf, 4–5 distaf, 5 dysestafe, 5–6 dystaf(fe, 6–7 distaffe, 5– distaff. pl. distaffs (5–7 distaves).
[OE. distæf, supposed to be for dis- or dise-stæf, the second element being the n. staff; dis or dise is app. identical with LG. diesse (Bremen Wbch.) a bunch of flax on a distaff, and connected with dize, dizen ‘to put tow on a distaffe’ (Ray).]
1. A cleft staff about 3 feet long, on which, in the ancient mode of spinning, wool or flax was wound. It was held under the left arm, and the fibres of the material were drawn from it through the fingers of the left hand, and twisted spirally by the forefinger and thumb of the right, with the aid of the suspended spindle, round which the thread, as it was twisted or spun, was wound.
| c 1000 ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 125/21 Colus, distæf. c 1386 Chaucer Nun's Pr. T. 563 And Malkyn with a dystaf in hir hand. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) III. 33 Sardanapallus spynnynge reed selk at þe distaf. c 1475 Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 794/14 Hec colus, a dysestafe. 1489 Caxton Faytes of A. i. i. 2 Wymen comynly do not entremete but to spynne on the distaf. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §146 Let thy dystaffe be alwaye redye for a pastyme. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. iii. iv. i. ii. (1651) 651 Tradesmen left their shops, women their distaves. 1675 Hobbes Odyssey (1677) 78 Others with their distaves sate to spin. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 475 One common Work they ply'd; their Distaffs full With carded Locks of blue Milesian Wooll. 1816 Scott Bl. Dwarf iii, Serving wenches..sate plying their distaffs. 1871 R. Ellis Catullus lxiv. 311 Singly the left [hand] upbore in wool soft-hooded a distaff. 1876 Rock Text. Fabr. 2 Spinning from a distaff is even now common..all through Italy. |
b. In proverbial and figurative phrases. † to have tow on one's distaff: to have work in hand or trouble in store (obs.).
| c 1386 Chaucer Miller's T. 588 He hadde moore tow on his distaf Than Gerueys knew. a 1420 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 1226 Towe on my dystaf have I for to spynne More..than ye wote of yit. 1525 Ld. Berners Froiss. II. clxxiv. [clxx.] 520 In shorte space he shall haue more flax to his dystaffe than he can well spynne. 1546 J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 60 If they fyre me, some of them shall wyn More towe on their distaues, than they can well spyn. 1853 C. Brontë Villette xxv, The whole of my patience is now spun off the distaff. |
2. The staff or ‘rock’ of a hand spinning-wheel, upon which the flax to be spun is placed.
| 1766 Croker, etc. Dict. Arts s.v. Spinning, Performed on the wheel with a distaff and spindle. 1828 Webster, Distaff, the staff of a spinning-wheel, to which a bunch of flax or tow is tied and from which the thread is drawn. |
3. As the type of women's work or occupation.
| c 1386 Chaucer Monk's Prol. 19 She rampeth in my face And crieth..I wol haue thy knyf And thou shalt haue my distaf and go spynne. 1605 Shakes. Lear iv. ii. 17, I must change names at home, and giue the Distaffe Into my Husbands hands. 1611 ― Cymb. v. iii. 34 Their owne Noblenesse, which could haue turn'd A Distaffe, to a Lance. 1659 B. Harris Parival's Iron Age 63 The women..so stoutly assailed the Town-House, that it was necessitated..to make them retire to the distaffe. 1821 Byron Sardan. ii. i. 344, I blush that we should owe our lives to such A king of distaffs! a 1839 Praed Poems (1864) I. 208 His delicate hand Seemed fitter for the distaff than the spear. |
b. Hence, symbolically, for the female sex, female authority or dominion; also, the female branch of a family, the ‘spindle-side’ as opposed to the ‘spear-side’; a female heir.
| 1494 Fabyan Chron. vii. 329 He wolde not haue so noble a lordshyp runne amonge, or to be deuydyd atwene so many dystauys [i.e. his four daughters]. 1602 Carew Cornwall (1723) 152 b, M. Militon..whose sonne being lost in his trauaile beyond the seas, enriched 6 distaffs with his inheritance. 1644 Howell Eng. Tears (1645) 180 Some say the Crozier, some say the Distaffe was too busie. 1659 B. Harris Parival's Iron Age 51 The Kingdom is hereditary, and for want of an heir male, it falls to the Distaff. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey) s.v. Distaff, The Crown of France never falls to the distaff. 1862 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. (1865) III. ix. i. 63 Old Anton being already fallen into the distaff, with nothing but three Granddaughters. |
4. attrib. and Comb., as distaff-business, distaff-right, distaff-woman; distaff side, the female branch of a house or family; distaff's or St. Distaff's day, the day after Twelfth Day or the Feast of the Epiphany, on which day (Jan. 7) women resumed their spinning and other ordinary employments after the holidays; also called rock-day; distaff cane, a species of reed, the stems or canes of which are used for distaffs, arrows, fishing-rods, etc.; distaff thistle, a name of Carthamus lanatus (Cirsium lanatum), from its woolly flowering stems.
| 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, iii. ii. 118 Against thy State Yea Distaffe-Women manage rustie Bills. a 1633 S. Lennard tr. Charron's Wisd. iii. vii. §6 (1670) 409 This inconvenience followeth the friendship of married couples, that it is mingled with so many other strange matters, children, parents of the one side and the other, and so many other distaff-businesses that do many times trouble and interrupt a lively affection. 1648 Herrick Hesper., St. Distaff's Day, Partly worke and partly play Ye must on S. Distaff's day. [Ibid., Give S. Distaffe all the right, Then bid Christmas sport good night.] 1715 Petiver in Phil. Trans. XXIX. 234 This differs from the Distaff-Thistle in having its upper Stalks woolly like Cobwebs. 1869 Hazlitt Prov. & Phrases 304 On St. Distaff's Day, neither work nor play. 1884 Miller Plant-n., Distaff Cane, Arundo Donax. 1890 Temple Bar Mag. Nov. 311 ‘Is there insanity in Byng's blood?’ Not certainly on the distaff side, the side of his eminently sane and wholesome mother. 1895 Pollock & Maitland Hist. Eng. Law II. 305 For a male to get a share by ‘distaff right’ [iure coli] was by no means uncommon. |