“Tenterhooks” is an exceptional word, even though I’m confident I’ve never used it in any conversation and even though it hasn’t appeared in a single one of our 15,889 life-to-date posts before this one (a suspicion confirmed by a computerized search of our entire site).
In its original meaning, which dates back to at least the 1600s, a “tenterhook” was a hooked nail used to affix washed woven fabrics to a wooden frame called a “tenter”, on which the woolen cloth could dry outdoors — stretched, straightened, and under tension. But, as The Font of All Human Knowledge tells us, “By the mid-18th century, the phrase on tenterhooks came to mean being in a state of tension, uneasiness, anxiety, or suspense, i.e., figuratively stretched like the cloth on the tenter.”
Why did this word pop into my head today? Well, because some of the music below put me on tenterhooks, and expressing those feelings in any other way would seem slightly drab by comparison, when the music itself is definitely not drab. (By coincidence, “drab” is another old English word dating back to the 1600s which also had something to do with woven cloth; it was the name for undyed, homespun wool with colors that were dull brown, yellowish, or gray.) Continue reading »
