distaff

WordNet

the sphere of work by women
the staff on which wool or flax is wound before spinning

PrepTutorEJDIC

糸巻き棒(羊毛などの糸を紡ぐとき使用した) / 《the~》女性
(家系の)母方,母系

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出典(authority):フリー百科事典『ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』「2014/10/01 08:09:07」(JST)

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Queen Berthe instructing girls to spin flax on spindles using distaffs, Albert Anker, 1888

A distaff and a spindle

As a noun, a distaff (/ˈdɪstɑːf/, also called a rock^[1]) 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. As an adjective the term distaff is used to describe the female side of a family.

Form

Alsatian spinner with wheel and distaff

Spinner with spindle and distaff

Russian distaffs displayed at the museum of folk handicrafts at Ferapontov Monastery

In Western Europe, there were two common forms of distaffs, depending on the spinning method. The traditional form is a staff, held under one's arm while using a spindle. It is about 3 feet (0.9 m) long, held under the left arm, with the left hand drawing the fibers from it.^[1] This version is the older of the two, as spindle spinning predates spinning on a wheel.

A distaff can also be mounted as an attachment to a spinning wheel. On a wheel it is placed next to the bobbin, where it is in easy reach of the spinner. This version is shorter, but otherwise doesn't differ from the spindle version.

By contrast, the traditional Russian distaff, used both with spinning wheels and spindles, is L-shaped, and consists of a horizontal board, known as the dontse (Russian: донце), and a flat vertical piece, frequently oar-shaped, to the inner side of which the bundle of fibers was tied or pinned. The spinner sat on the dontse with the vertical piece of the distaff to her left, and drew the fibers out with her left hand. The distaff was often richly carved and painted, and was an important element of Russian folk art.^[2]

Recently handspinners have begun using wrist-distaffs to hold their fiber; these are made of flexible material such as braided yarn, and can swing freely from the wrist. They generally consist of a loop with a tail, at the end of which is a tassel, often with beads on each strand. The spinner wraps the roving or tow around the tail and through the loop to keep it out of the way, and to keep it from getting snarled.

Dressing a distaff

Dressing a distaff is the act of wrapping the fiber around the distaff. With flax, the wrapping is done by laying the flax fibers down, approximately parallel to each other and the distaff, then carefully rolling the fibers onto the distaff. A ribbon or string is then tied at the top, and loosely wrapped around the fibers to keep them in place.

Other meanings

Spinning flax from a distaff

The term distaff is also used as an adjective to describe the female branch of a family^[3] (e.g., the "distaff side" of a person's family refers 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. The term distaff has fallen largely into disuse in recent times, and its antonyms of sword and spear to describe a male grouping are even more obscure. The antonym of distaff is agnate.

One still recognized use of the term is in horse racing, in which races limited to female horses are referred to as distaff races. From 1984 until 2007 at the American Breeders' Cup World Championships, the major race for fillies and mares was the Breeders' Cup Distaff (beginning in 2008, the event is referred to as the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic. Starting in 2013 the name of the race changed back to being called the Breeders' Cup Distaff). It is commonly regarded as the female analog to the better-known Breeders' Cup Classic, though female horses are not barred from entering that race.

The Women's division of the mixed-martial-arts organization EXC (Elite Xtreme Combat) is known as the "Distaff Division".

In Norse mythology, the goddess Frigg spins clouds from her bejeweled distaff in the Norse constellation known as Frigg's Spinning Wheel (Friggerock, Orion's belt).^{[citation needed]}

In the video game Loom by Lucasfilm Games (1990), the Weavers' Guild, the game's equivalent to wizards, and the main character, Bobbin Threadbare, use wooden staves called distaffs to control their magic, described as "weav[ing] the very fabric of reality".^[4]

References

^ ^a ^b "Rock." The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989.
^ "Украшение прялок" [Distaff decoration] (in Russian). narodko.ru. Retrieved 2 December 2010.
^ Distaff Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Retrieved on 2008-07-22
^ [1] Loom's audio drama, which was provided on tape with the game

External links

Instructions on making a recycled sock wrist-distaff

English Journal

Development of molecular markers and linkage maps for the Carthamus species C. tinctorius and C. oxyacanthus.

Mayerhofer R1, Archibald C, Bowles V, Good AG.
Genome / National Research Council Canada = Génome / Conseil national de recherches Canada.Genome.2010 Apr;53(4):266-76. doi: 10.1139/g10-002.
A set of SSR and RFLP markers for safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) and jeweled distaff thistle (C. oxyacanthus) was generated from cDNA and genomic libraries and by mining public and proprietary sequence databases. In total, 1412 PCR-based markers and 75 RFLP markers were screened and polymorphic lo
PMID 20616858

Advice concerning pregnancy and health in late medieval Europe: peasant women's wisdom in The Distaff Gospels.

Garay K1, Jeay M.
Canadian bulletin of medical history = Bulletin canadien d'histoire de la médecine.Can Bull Med Hist.2007;24(2):423-43.
This paper explores an area which has proven difficult for scholars to penetrate: women's popular wisdom concerning medical matters in the later medieval period. Contextualized within an examination of medieval medical texts both by and about women, our discussion focuses on a later 15th-century Fre
PMID 18447313

[The distaff philosophy in folk medicine animal science].

Krüger H.
DTW. Deutsche tierärztliche Wochenschrift.Dtsch Tierarztl Wochenschr.1991 Jun;98(6):217-9.
Spinning, distaffs and spinning-rooms are used to be closely linked with superstitious thinking and behavior. The so-called distaff philosophy reflects the wisdom of the old black magic spinners. Their wisdom was known by the popular veterinary medicine. With the help of the collections of distaff p
PMID 1889363

Dentistry's distaff side.

Tillis BP.
The New York state dental journal.N Y State Dent J.1989 Aug-Sep;55(7):5.
PMID 2771300

Japanese Journal

糸巻棒と槍 : 『じゃじゃ馬ならし』における「さかさま世界」

滝川睦
岐阜大学教養部研究報告 21, 229-245, 1985
NAID 110009648587

Intimations of a Distaff Allolect

Bedford R.C.
同志社女子大學學術研究年報 23(1), 239-251, 1972-11-30
NAID 110000278661

Related Pictures

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