tweed

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a rough, closely woven woolen cloth, usually in mixed colors and often used for jackets and suits

   He wore a brown tweed jacket against the autumn chill.

2. 2
   noun

   clothes, especially a suit or trousers, made from tweed

   The professor arrived in well-worn tweeds and muddy boots.

Simplified etymology

Tweed arose around 1830 when a cloth merchant apparently misread Scots tweel, a form of twill, as tweed. Association with the River Tweed helped preserve the mistaken form. Tweel and twill are based on two and refer to cloth made with two-ply yarn.

Recorded from the 1830s, probably a shortening of Scots tweedling, related to tweel, 'twill.' A traditional story says an English merchant misread Scots tweel as Tweed and associated the cloth with the River Tweed; that account is famous but not securely documented.

Topics

External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary