To be on tenterhooks, meaning to wait anxiously for something, comes from the tenterhooks on frames used for stretching out wool after it’s washed. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Tenterhooks”
Grant, the other day I sent an email to my friend and I said, I’ve got great news to share with you.
But I didn’t tell her what it was.
And she wrote back and said, I’m on tenterhooks.
And I thought, you know what?
I know what that means, but I don’t know what that is.
Nice. Good.
Do you know what it means?
I looked it up once and I vaguely remember some sharp instrument that you used to pick up, was it fish or hay bales or to load a cargo ship?
I can’t remember.
You’re kind of in the neighborhood.
Something like that.
Yeah, I was thinking it had to do with something hanging in a butcher shop.
I’ve also seen tender hooks.
What is it?
What is it?
It’s tender, though.
It’s T-E-N-T-E-R, right?
It is.
And it has to do with the old process of washing wool that you’ve woven because it needs to be washed because it still has the oil and the dirt on it.
Right, right.
So you wash it, but then you have to stretch it out so that it doesn’t shrink.
And so it used to be put on these frames that were called tenters.
Tenters.
And the little hooks that you use to stretch them out and make sure that it doesn’t shrink, they were called tenter hooks.
Oh, and this was a common thing because we were an agricultural society back then.
Exactly.
You know, you don’t see it that much today, but there used to be tenter fields.
Tenters, whole fields of this.
Yeah, well, I don’t know how big they were.
And so maybe you would spring from tenter to tenter adjusting things and take a risk of catching your foot on a hook?
Well, the idea is that it stretched at this moment of tension.
Oh, I see.
It’s like stretched just as far as you can.
Right, just before breaking.
Yes, yes.
So this is where my friend was.
I am on tenterhooks.
Ooh, tenterhooks, a real thing.
Yeah.
Not tenterhooks.
Yeah, but it was just one of those words that I knew I knew the meaning of, but I just had no clue.
And a story, a little bit of history lodged back in there.
About what we used to be as a people.
Exactly.
We cared more about wool.
Wool is important, right?
At the bottom of every word is a story.
Call us and we’ll tell you yours.
877-929-9673.
Email words@waywordradio.org.
