carder

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a worker who cards wool or other fiber, disentangling and aligning it before spinning

   The carder cleaned and straightened the wool before passing it to the spinner.

2. 2
   noun

   a machine used to card textile fibers

   The mill installed a faster carder to prepare cotton for spinning.

From Middle English carder, formed from the textile verb card + -er. The verb came through Anglo-French from Medieval Latin carduus, 'thistle,' because teasels and similar prickly heads were once used to comb fibers.

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