wool

name

1. A village and civil parish in Dorset, England, previously in Purbeck district (OS grid ref SY8486).

noun

Etymology: From Middle English wolle, from Old English wull, from Proto-West Germanic *wullu, from Proto-Germanic *wullō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂. Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian Wulle, German Low German Wull, Dutch wol, German Wolle, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish ull, Danish uld; also Welsh gwlân, Latin lāna, Lithuanian vi̇̀lna, Russian во́лос (vólos), Slovak vlna, Bulgarian влас (vlas), Albanian lesh (“wool, hair, fleece”). Doublet of lana. The vowel development u → o → oo is purely graphical. Modern English generally avoids the string ⟨wu⟩ in favour of ⟨wo⟩, and the resulting woll was then altered to wool (as supposedly better representing the pronunciation).

1. The hair of the sheep, llama and some other ruminants.

   “The sheep were caught and plucked, because shears had not yet been invented to cut the wool from the sheep's back.”

2. A cloth or yarn made from such hair.

   “Spielvogel said wet cleaning also has limitations; while it is fine for cottons and fabrics worn in warm climates, he said, it can damage heavy wools or structured clothes like suit jackets.”

3. Anything with a fibrous texture like that of sheep's wool.

   “The groundsels have leaves covered in wool for insulation[…”

4. A fine fiber obtained from the leaves of certain trees, such as firs and pines.
5. Short, thick hair, especially when crisped or curled.

   “wool of bat and tongue of dog”

6. Yarn, including that made from synthetic fibers.
7. A woolly back; a resident of a satellite town outside Liverpool, such as St Helens or Warrington. See also Yonner.
8. A marijuana cigarette or cigar laced with crack cocaine.

   “The object of your affection is the treetop connection / Where basically you love to smoke your wools”

   “He rocked Caesar's chains, he pushed Caesar's Range / Smokin' mad wools all day, with Caesar's change”