Friday, February 10, 2012

Needle

Needle \NEED-l\ , noun;
1. A small, slender, rod-like instrument, usually of polished steel, with a sharp point at one end and an eye or hole for thread at the other, for passing thread through cloth to make stitches in sewing
2. Medicine: A hypodermic needle

This word comes from Old English naeðlæ from Proto-Germanic *næthlo, which is literally "a tool for sewing" from Proto-Indo-European *net-la- based on *(s)ne- ("to sew, to spin"). The suffix *-tla indicates use as an instrument, so "to sew" + *-tla is "sewing instrument."

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