Transcript of “Etui and Tweezers”
If you do enough crossword puzzles, you’re sure to come across the word a twee, or a twee.
It’s spelled E-T-U-I, and it means a small case for sewing needles or other little items.
And because it’s such an odd combination of letters, it’s a handy term for those crossword
Constructors. There’s a great cryptic clue for étouille, which is a case of pins and needles,
Which I think is pretty brilliant. What’s also really cool about this word is that it comes from
French étouille, which means a case or a box or container. It goes back to a word that means to
Keep or shut up or imprison. And that also branched off in an interesting way into another term. In the
17th century, the English word was often spelled E-T-W-E-E. And the plural of that is etweese,
E-T-W-E-E-S-E. And the word etweese eventually transferred from the case to the little
Instrument that those cases sometimes contained, etweezers.
Oh, I see. How about that? That’s why they’re called tweezers.
Yeah, it’s a weird word if you think about it, but it goes back to the idea of keeping something in a little case.
The world is filled with linguistic curiosities and strange collisions and coincidences.
We’d love to share ours with you, and you can share yours with us.
877-929-9673 is toll-free in the United States and Canada, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
