It’s not hard to see how tying clothes around you, sticking sharpened bone or sticks through coverings to keep them from falling off easily, or poking holes in them and threading sinew to hold them on was a logical next step. While woven plant matter has not survived the archaeological record well, there is good reason to believe that people were weaving grasses, stems and leaves long before there was thread. Far more complicated than conditioning skins, these weavings could also be used as mats, coverings, shelters, shoes, bags, and carrying tools. It’s not too much of a stretch to see how a simply playing with grasses could lead to weaving a flat matt which could then lead to weaving a three dimensional item. Playing and working with these grasses could very well led to the disintegration of the grass into long fibers in a similar way that drying and pounding sinew gave long fibers to work with. Unlike sinew, these grass fibers were not strong on their own.
At some point, about 30000 years ago, someone playing with or working with grass fibers rolled them on something. By rolling the fibers over and adding more fibers to the roll as the old ones were used up, they developed the very first string, a technological revolution that is often ignored in history. Craftspeople speculate some one was fiddling with plant or animal fibers and was rolling them on their thigh while fidgeting. This would twist the shorter fibers into longer ones, and was very possibly the way thread (yarn, cord, twine, string) was invented. While it is obvious that this fiber could be used to tie and lace and sew much like sinew, it probably didn’t take long to realize that this worked much better for weaving than sinew or strips of fur would.
I adore checking the history and evolution of words, as they can tell us so much about human history. The word for sinew, very likely the first material used for binding things by humans, comes from the Proto Indo European root word ‘sai’ which means to tie and bind. You can almost hear someone asking ‘give me that thing that ties’ and the hearer knowing exactly what was meant, an example where the thing is named after what it does.
Yarn and cord come from the Proto Indo European root word ‘ghere’ for intestines/ guts!
Here the word harkens back to what these items came from or replaced. It’s also why we call it our spinal cord, and why instruments (made of animal organs for a very long time) allow you to play ‘chords’.
String is from the Proto Indo European root word ‘strenk’ which means tight or narrow. To me, this implies that it is a later appellation and refers to the fineness of the thread as opposed to the material or technique used to make it or its purpose.
If you have spun, my small discussion may have made you say ‘you forgot to double it!’ Single cords were used for ages, but allowing the cord to twist back on itself makes for a stronger and thicker tread or twine. Thread literally means twisted (from the Proto Indo European root word ‘tere’ to rub or turn) and twine means doubled (from the Proto Indo European root word ‘dwo’ for two. All these words are very old, which is fitting for such an important invention and variations. I love seeing how the words changed so logically, and I assume the roots for the Proto Indo European for at least sinew and cord were carried by early explorers into the Levant.
