Clewline
/ˈkluː.laɪn/noun
A rope used to haul up the lower corners, or clews, of a square sail.
Did you know?The nautical word clew and the modern word clue are spelling variants of the same medieval word: a ball of thread used as a guide through a maze, famously echoing Theseus’s escape from the Labyrinth.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
Germanic
*kliuwōn
“A ball or skein of thread; the reconstructed ancestor of the clew/clue family.”
Old English
Old English
clīwen
“A ball of thread or yarn.”
Middle English
Middle English
clewe
“A ball of thread; later, the lower corner of a sail, where ropes were attached.”
14th Century
Middle English
clew
“The corner of a sail, probably named by analogy with the projecting or knotted form of a ball of thread.”
17th Century
English
clew-line
“A line or rope used to draw up a sail’s clew.”
Modern English
English
clewline
“A nautical rope for hauling up the clew of a square sail.”