different between twite vs twine

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /twa?t/
• Rhymes: -a?t

Noun

twite (plural twites)

1. A small passerine bird, Linaria flavirostris (syn. Carduelis flavirostris), that breeds in northern Europe and across central Asia.

Synonyms

• (Linaria flavirostris): heather lintie (Scotland, Orkney), mountain linnet

Translations

See also

• linnet

Anagrams

• Witte, tewit

English

Alternative forms

• twyne (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /twa?n/
• Rhymes: -a?n

Etymology 1

From Middle English twine, twyne, twin, from Old English tw?n (“double thread, twist, twine, linen-thread, linen”), from Proto-West Germanic *twi?n (“thread, twine”), from Proto-Indo-European *dwisnós (“double”), from *dwóh? (“two”).

Noun

twine (countable and uncountable, plural twines)

1. A twist; a convolution.
2. A strong thread composed of two or three smaller threads or strands twisted together, and used for various purposes, as for binding small parcels, making nets, and the like; a small cord or string.
3. The act of twining or winding round.
4. Intimate and suggestive dance gyrations.
   • 1965, Wilson Pickett, Don't Fight It (blues song), BMI Music.

     The way you jerk, the way you do the twine / You're too much, baby; I'd like to make you mine [...]

Coordinate terms

• (threads or strands twisted together): sinew

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English twinen, twynen, from Old English *tw?nian (“to twine, thread”), from Proto-Germanic *twizn?n? (“to thread”), from Proto-Indo-European *dwisnós (“double”), from Proto-Indo-European *dwóh? (“two”). Cognate with Dutch twijnen (“to twine, contort, throw”), Danish tvinde (“to twist”), Swedish tvinna (“to twist, twine, throw”), Icelandic tvinna (“to merge, twine”).

Verb

twine (third-person singular simple present twines, present participle twining, simple past and past participle twined)

1. (transitive) To weave together.
2. (transitive) To wind, as one thread around another, or as any flexible substance around another body.
   • c. 1607, William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, Act IV, Scene 5,^[1]

     Let me twine

     Mine arms about that body […]

   • 1931, Dashiell Hammett, The Glass Key, New York: Vintage, 1972, Chapter 10, p. 199,^[2]

     She was twining her fingers together.

3. (transitive) To wind about; to embrace; to entwine.
   • 1712, Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock, Canto III,^[3]

     “Let wreaths of triumph now my temples twine,”

     The victor cried, “the glorious prize is mine! […] ”

4. (intransitive) To mutually twist together; to become mutually involved; to intertwine.
   • 1941, Emily Carr, Klee Wyck, Chapter 1,^[4]

     Usually some old crone was squatted on the earth floor, weaving cedar fibre or tatters of old cloth into a mat, her claw-like fingers twining in and out, in and out, among the strands that were fastened to a crude frame of sticks.

5. (intransitive) To wind; to bend; to make turns; to meander.
   • 1713, Jonathan Swift, Cadenus and Vanessa,^[5]

     As rivers, though they bend and twine,

     Still to the sea their course incline:

6. (intransitive) To ascend in spiral lines about a support; to climb spirally.

   Many plants twine.

7. (obsolete) To turn round; to revolve.
   • 1598, George Chapman, Hero and Leander

     dancers twine midst cedar-fragrant glades

8. (obsolete) To change the direction of.
   • 1600, Torquato Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered (1581), translated by Edward Fairfax, Book 20, Stanza 38,^[6]

     For where he turned his sword, or twined his steed,

     He slew, or man and beast on earth down laid,

9. (obsolete) To mingle; to mix.
   • 1646, Richard Crashaw, “M. Crashaw’s Answer for Hope,” lines 29-30,^[7]

     As lumpes of sugar loose themselues, and twine

     Their subtile essence with the soul of wine.

Derived terms

• entwine
• intertwine

Translations

Etymology 3

Verb

twine (third-person singular simple present twines, present participle twining, simple past and past participle twined)

1. Alternative form of twin (“to separate”)