Definition
nounThe hair of the sheep, llama and some other ruminants.
nounA cloth or yarn made from such hair.
Sentence Examples
You cannot pull the wool over my eyes.
Mr Brown is a wool merchant.
Sheep were kept for their wool and meat.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English wolle, from Old English wull, from Proto-West Germanic *wullu, from Proto-Germanic *wullō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂.
Cognates
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Wulle, German Low German Wull, Dutch wol, German Wolle, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish ull, Danish uld; also Welsh gwlân, Latin lāna, Lithuanian vi̇̀lna, Russian во́лос (vólos), Slovak vlna, Bulgarian влас (vlas), Albanian lesh (“wool, hair, fleece”). Doublet of lana.
The vowel development u → o → oo is purely graphical. Modern English generally avoids the string ⟨wu⟩ in favour of ⟨wo⟩, and the resulting woll was then altered to wool (as supposedly better representing the pronunciation).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The sheep were caught and plucked, because shears had not yet been invented to cut the wool from the sheep's back."
— 2006, Nigel Guy Wilson, Ancient Greece, page 692:
"Spielvogel said wet cleaning also has limitations; while it is fine for cottons and fabrics worn in warm climates, he said, it can damage heavy wools or structured clothes like suit jackets."
— 2009 January 12, Mireya Navarro, “It May Market Organic Alternatives, but Is Your Cleaner Really Greener?”, in New York Times:
"The groundsels have leaves covered in wool for insulation[…"
— 1975, Anthony Julian Huxley, Plant and Planet, page 223:
"wool of bat and tongue of dog"
— c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
"The object of your affection is the treetop connection / Where basically you love to smoke your wools"
— 1991 March 29, “Slow Down” (0:25 from the start), in One for All, performed by Brand Nubian: