ESSEX-ROOTS-L Archives

Archiver > ESSEX-ROOTS > 1998-02 > 0887988544


From: John & Debbie <>
Subject: Re: History of Ipswich
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 07:29:04 -0800


wrote:
>
> The posting on the History of Ipswich is really terrific. Thank you. One
> question does anyone know what Fulling refers to?
>
> Susan Hynes

Susan,
It is so nice to see a question arise. I could swear that many of my
posts would generate comments and questions. Perhaps this group on Essex
roots is just very knowledgable about all these old terms.
At any rate, I went to the Hypertext Webster Gateway and found the
following:
>From WordNet (r) 1.6 (wn)

fuller n : a worker who fulls (cleans and thickens) freshly woven cloth
for a living

>From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary (easton)

Fuller The word "full" is from the Anglo-Saxon fullian, meaning "to
whiten." To full is to press or scour cloth in a mill. This art is one
of great antiquity. Mention is made of "fuller's soap" (Mal. 3:2), and
of "the fuller's field" (2 Kings 18:17). At his transfiguration our
Lord's rainment is said to have been white "so as no fuller on earth
could white them" (Mark 9:3). En-rogel (q.v.), meaning literally
"foot-fountain," has been interpreted as the "fuller's fountain,"
because there the fullers trod the cloth with their feet.

The above site can be found at
http://work.ucsd.edu:5141/cgi-bin/http_webster. I have found many
archaic words there. The source is Webster's Revised Unabridged
Dictionary (1913).

--
John Slaughter/Spokane, WA
Q: Why do genealogist die with a smile on their faces?
A: They know they're about to get one more date on their pedigree
charts.

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