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distaff

dis·taff

UK/ˈdɪstɑːf/ US/ˈdɪstæf/ uncommon
noun (2) adjective (1)

noun

1.

the sphere of work by women

2.

the staff on which wool or flax is wound before spinning

adjective

1.

characteristic of or peculiar to a woman

  • “female sensitiveness”
  • “female suffrage”
Synonyms
Similar

Origin

From Middle English distaf (“distaff”), from Old English distæf (“distaff”), from *dis- (“bunch of flax”) (cognate with Middle Low German dise (“bunch of flax on a distaff”)) + stæf (“staff”) (from Proto-Germanic *stabaz (“staff, stick”), from Proto-Indo-European *stebʰ-). Senses 3 and 5 (“anything traditionally done by or considered of importance to women only”; “a woman, or women considered as a group”) refer to the fact that spinning was traditionally done by women.

Phrases

  • Distaff Day
  • distaff side

Related words

Broader terms

Parts

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.