Still a beautifully figurative way to convey the telling of a tale. Too bad I don’t hear it used much. This could have German roots : Seemannsgarn spinnen, to spin a sailor’s twine was tedious, mundane work and certainly lent itself to storytelling. The word yarn alone stands in for a long story. According to Wikipedia, in Australia, and particularly among Aborigines, it has become a verb, to talk: Yarnin.
*Rufus F. Zogbaum (1849-1925), oil on canvas, depicted from a photograph taken aboard the U.S.S. Mohican in 1888.
We’ll have to have a good yarnin on Twitter sometime then
Darn Yarnin’, don’t tweet!
Interesting. I liked to spin yarns for my kids. Has a nice homey sound to it.
Getcher’ needles out!
I love WIX. I always learn so much.
A ‘friend’ once said, “Julie, you are chock full of useless information.” Yeah! I’m a nerdy kinda gal – and proud of it!
I really really love your idiom exchange posts. Such a fresh way to look at language!
Thanks, they are so fun to think about but tough to research! Finally enlisted the help of a research librarian and she is into it now too!