News from the OED Archives

When domestic words presented problems to James Murray, he would certainly have discussed them with his wife and five daughters, who might have been able to suggest sources of help. One slip in the OED files, with the headword 'Honiton braid', has recently been unearthed with a piece of braid pinned to it, 'supplied by Mrs. Murray who says it is very old got from a lady connected with Devonshire who had it long ago'. The Murray family probably shopped at Elliston and Cavell, a department store in Magdalen Street, Oxford, about a mile from their home. James Murray often sought advice from Mr. Rose of Elliston and Cavell, and samples of fastenings and small pieces of fabric, found among the slips, show how enthusiastically he joined in the search for the origins of these items.

A packet of letters, written in 1912, and some samples, recently discovered, illustrate the investigation of the word tire ('In ribbon-weaving: A cord which pulls the high-lisses up') and its use in ribbon manufacture. Mr. Rose wrote to two companies in Coventry, once a centre of the ribbon industry, and received a reply from H. Burbage and Son. They could not find anyone in Coventry 'old enough to remember the term and process', but eventually discovered a source of information, 'an old weaver at Nuneaton over 70 the only one we can find alive'. With reference to the samples sent with the letter (and a charming disregard for punctuation), the unnamed writer described the process:

'The Tiers are strings used to pull when weaving a plain ribbon with bars across called brocading a good example is the pattern Blue enclosed but whether Tire or Tiers is correct it is not possible to say - it is likely tire may come from the French tirer to draw more especially as a great number of the people in the Coventry district who worked this trade were of French origin. There used to be what was called a draw loom for making small patterns with one or more boys at the side to pull the strings according to the pattern.' [Original punctuation and spelling retained.]

The OED definition of tire is accompanied by eighteenth-century quotations which describe 'a new invented machine' which took over the work of the string-pulling boys.