Thursday Word: Heckle
5 February 2026 06:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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1word1dayHeckle
So, you think you know certain words? Their meaning is so obvious, right? Today, I present heckle, a word that's just more than a word!
Meet the heckle, also called a hackle or hatchel. It's a comb used to straighten flax or hemp fibres. Heckling is the final step in preparing these fibres before spinning, performed by hecklers, sometimes in a heckling factory or shop. The work was tough and performed by men and women--female hecklers were called hekelsteres.
Heckle in English dates to 1300 when it was a flax comb and was spelled hechel. It either came from hecel in Old English or from a Germanic source. Middle High German had hechel and Middle Dutch had hekel, both of which come from a root word for a hook or tooth.
Now, how do we get from a pointy comb to the kind of heckler we think of at protests, comedy clubs, sports matches, and speeches?
Well, although heckler originated in the mid-14th century , it escaped the realms of textile production by the 1880s when it was first used to describe "persons who harass"--that is, hecklers from Dundee, Scotland, developed a reputation for their vocal interruptions and spirited discussions. One heckler often read newspapers aloud during the work day, and the shops and factories became centres for labour activism.
Now you know!
So, you think you know certain words? Their meaning is so obvious, right? Today, I present heckle, a word that's just more than a word!
Meet the heckle, also called a hackle or hatchel. It's a comb used to straighten flax or hemp fibres. Heckling is the final step in preparing these fibres before spinning, performed by hecklers, sometimes in a heckling factory or shop. The work was tough and performed by men and women--female hecklers were called hekelsteres.
Heckle in English dates to 1300 when it was a flax comb and was spelled hechel. It either came from hecel in Old English or from a Germanic source. Middle High German had hechel and Middle Dutch had hekel, both of which come from a root word for a hook or tooth.
#/media/File:Hatchel_of_the_Bugg_Family.jpg "Hatchel_of_the_Bugg_Family.jpg")
Now, how do we get from a pointy comb to the kind of heckler we think of at protests, comedy clubs, sports matches, and speeches?
Well, although heckler originated in the mid-14th century , it escaped the realms of textile production by the 1880s when it was first used to describe "persons who harass"--that is, hecklers from Dundee, Scotland, developed a reputation for their vocal interruptions and spirited discussions. One heckler often read newspapers aloud during the work day, and the shops and factories became centres for labour activism.
Now you know!
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