Re: Tenter
Yes, Phil, I know about tenterhooks, having had relatives who
worked in the textile industry, and spent three years myself with
Turners Asbestos. However, the "machine minder"
use of the word is yet another meaning.
My old (1950s) edition of Chambers Dictionary gives four
different meanings for the word "tent", three of which have an
associated word "tenter".
One, as you say, means a frame with hooks, on which to stretch
cloth, especially for embroidery (as in old "samplers"), and by
extension this usage transferred to the textile industry.
A tenter-hook is "a sharp toothed nail as on a tenter".
Another is given as a Scottish word:
to tent = to take heed, or attend to
tenter = one who tends
So it wasn't just Lancashire dialect, but had a more widespread
use in this sense.
Tony Brewis
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