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prettygoodwordclew (KLOO) - n., a ball of yarn, twine, or thread.
Also (obs.) a ball or spherical mass and a handful of nautical meanings (including the cords that suspend a hammock), but this is the most important one for my purposes. The word clue comes from this via the clew of thread Ariadne gave Theseus to guide him through the Labyrinth. This one goes back to Old English cleowe/cliewen/cliwen, Germanic roots, and before that PIE *glew-, gather into a mass/lump/ball, also the ancestor of clay.
---L.
Also (obs.) a ball or spherical mass and a handful of nautical meanings (including the cords that suspend a hammock), but this is the most important one for my purposes. The word clue comes from this via the clew of thread Ariadne gave Theseus to guide him through the Labyrinth. This one goes back to Old English cleowe/cliewen/cliwen, Germanic roots, and before that PIE *glew-, gather into a mass/lump/ball, also the ancestor of clay.
---L.
