Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1960 (SND Vol. V). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1706, 1779-1846, 1898-1965
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HEDDLE, n. Also hedle, headle, heddel, haidle; hid(d)le; ¶haddle. Gen. in pl. The small cords or wires, with the shafts suspended from them, through which the warp is passed in a loom, and which raise and sink a proportion of the threads alternately so as to allow the passage of the shuttle bearing the weft (Sc. 1710 T. Ruddiman Gl. to Douglas Aeneis, headles, 1808 Jam., heddles, hiddles; Gall. 1824 MacTaggart Gallov. Encycl. 259, Uls. 1880 Patterson Gl.; Sh. 1914 Angus Gl., heddels; Ags., s.Sc., Uls. 1956). Also used attrib. and fig. Used also in Eng. weaving areas.Slk. 1706 Weavers Incorporation Minutes MS. (21 Sept.):
Ane broad loome hidle board in the custody of the present deacon.Lnk. c.1779 D. Graham Writings (1883) II. 215:
John . . . fell asleep upon his loom with his candle in his hand, and so set the web, heddles, reed, and treadle cords in a fire.Ags. 1821 D. Shaw Hum. Songs 26:
Wi' waft an' warp, an shears sae sharp, My rubbin bane, my reed an haddles.Sc. 1846 Whistle-Binkie 81:
Keep Providence aye on ae side o' ye, and a consistent life on the ither — and you'll work your last thrum into the very heddles wi' comfort to yoursel'.Sh. 1898 Shetland News (26 Feb.):
A'm no tinkin' 'at Sandy Williamson 'ill set him apon a lüm, or grip a heddle, bi da time 'at we get waaft an' yarn reddy.Uls. c.1920 J. Logan Ulster in X-Rays viii.:
The weaver's beam contained a long roll Of threads, 50 to 70 yards in length and spread over about four feet of breadth; these passed through "heddles," then through a "reed."Fif.3 1930:
A set of heddles for a web is called a caum.
Combs: (1) heddle-shaft (Lnk. 1805 G. McIndoe Poems 11); (2)¶heddle-threadle, tr., to be associated with (a great many societies or the like), to "weave" about from one company to another; (3) heddle-twine, the strong thread from which heddles were formerly made (Rnf. 1812 J. Wilson Agric. Rnf. 257). (2)Ags. 1965:
She's ane that's aye heddle-threadlin clubs.
Deriv. heddler, the operative who draws the yarn in a loom (Ayr. 1956).
[O.Sc. he(i)dill, hiddill, from 1513, a metathetic form from O.E. hęfeld, warp or weft threads. The St.Eng. form, with different phonological development, is heald.]You may wish to vary the format shown below depending on the citation style used.
"Heddle n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 9 Feb 2026 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/heddle>
