with Luke Taylor
"I am a weaver and a spinner," declares Judy Payne of St. Paul, Minn. "I do a lot of other crafts, too. I was at one time a museum director, so I learned all of these nifty 19th century crafts and I never quite left anything behind me."
Payne joins us this week on our second of two episodes recorded at the Minnesota State Fair. A member of the Weavers Guild of Minnesota, Payne is steeped in knowledge about the crafts of weaving and spinning.
But why would a weaver join us on Grammar Grater?
"There are a lot of words and phrases that we don’t even realize [come] from that craft," Payne says.
From a bench outside the State Fair’s Creative Activities building, Payne describes a number of phrases that come from spinning and weaving; some connections are obvious, others less so.
Listen to the interview as Payne gives us the histories behind these words or expressions:
spinster noun a single woman beyond the usual age for marriage (often derogatory)
dyed in the wool phrase unchanging in a particular belief
heckle verb interrupt (a public speaker) with comments or abuse
Luddite noun a person opposed to new technology
on tenterhooks phrase in a state of nervous suspense
Pop Goes the Weasel title a popular nursery rhyme
spin a yarn phrase tell a far-fetched story
Payne explains the origins of each of these, and some of the explanations are quite surprising.