Etymology

purl

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Today it means: A particular stitch in knitting in which the working yarn is pulled through an existing stitch from front to back. Full definition →

Middle English pirle ← Italian pirla
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purl · noun, verb1

Unknown; apparently related to Scots and dialect pirl (“twist, ripple, whirl, spin”), and possibly to Older Scots pyrl ("thrust or poke at"). Compare Venetan pirlo, an embellishment where the woven threads are twisted together. May be unrelated to purfle, though the meanings are similar.

purl · noun, verb2

  1. Italian · derived frompirla“whipping top”
  2. Middle English · inherited frompirle“whirligig”
  3. English todaypurl

from Middle English pirle (“whirligig”), Middle Italian pirla (“whipping top”).

purl · verb, noun3

  1. Old Norse · derived frompurla“to babble”
  2. English todaypurl

From Old Norse purla (“to babble”), possibly ultimately from an imitative Germanic base related to Dutch polder, Norwegian puldra (“to gush”) and pulla (“to bubble”), Old English polr (“marsh”).

purl · noun4

Possibly from the pearl-like appearance caused by bubbles on the surface of the liquid.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.