Chrysti The Wordsmith: Tease - 2

Greetings verb of yours. Less time on Christie the wordsmith. We examine the evolution of the verb to tease from an old English term used by textile workers meaning to shred or comb wool and fabric to its more modern metaphorical sense of vex or irritate or make fun of another term of similar pedigree is Haeckel h e c k l e a word taken from the trade vocabulary of flax processing and later turning up as a verb meaning to badger and criticize loudly in past centuries. The hand harvesting and processing of flax was a somewhat violent affair after harvest. The plant stocks were beaten with heavy wooden beams to extract the seed of the plant. Next the stock was soaked in water then crushed in a device called a flax brake which separated the stock from the spindle fibers inside the plant. After the fibers were extracted they were then split and straightened with a comb called a Haeckel which consisted of a series of iron spikes attached to a wooden board. The process was called heckling and flax homers were of

course the hecklers in the seventeenth century the trade specific term Haeckel appeared in the language of metaphor. It became a verb meaning to publicly taunt and interrupt someone as though the vocal heckler were goading and stabbing the speaker with a flax comb. The Oxford English Dictionary says that the word Haeckel has been quote long applied in Scotland to the public questioning of parliamentary candidates. I'm Christie the wordsmith. CHRISTIE The wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry. Zoot web dot com.