Shoddy

In the process of subbing down a billing for a Radio 4 programme I have come across an interesting etymology :

'Shoddy' - the process of ripping apart old clothes and re-spinning the fibres to create new cloth.

Benjamin Law devised the 'Shoddy' process in Batley, West Yorkshire. Now almost all the mills have closed.

According to Tony Robinson, who narrates a documentary on the matter: "'Shoddy' played a major part in the industrial and social revolutions. It produced affordable new suits for the working man, it clothed the armies of the world and it even introduced a new word to the English language."

Prog tx details: The Archive Hour - A Shoddy Business - BBC Radio 4, 20:00 on Saturday 13th Nov 04.

The OED has this to say:

Shoddy: 1. a. Woollen yarn obtained by tearing to shreds refuse woollen rags, which, with the addition of some new wool, is made into a kind of cloth (see 2).

1832 [see shoddy-grinder in 6]. 1836 G. HEAD Home Tour 146 The ‘shoddy’ as it is called may be, as occasion requires mixed with new wool in any proportion. 1884 G. DODD Textile Manuf. iv. 138 Shoddy, or woollen rags torn up fibre from fibre. 1851 MAYHEW Lond. Labour II. 30/1 To this stuff [sc. cotton rags ground up] the name of ‘shoddy’ is given, but the real and orthodox ‘shoddy’ is a production of the woollen districts. 1881 Leicestersh. Gloss., Shoddy, waste from worsted spinning mills. 1904 Tailor & Cutter 4 Aug. 480/1 Shoddy: The fibres of wool of the softer makes of old cloth after it has been torn to pieces.

Wednesday, November 10, 2004