REH Word of the Week: skein
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
posted by Leo Grin
![Print This Post Print This Post](http://leogrin.com/CimmerianBlog/wp-content/plugins/wp-print/images/print.gif)
skein
noun.
1. A length of thread or yarn wound in a loose long coil.
2. Something suggesting the coil of a skein; a complex tangle: a twisted skein of lies.
2. A flock of geese or similar birds in flight.
[Origin: Middle English skeine, from Old French escaigne, “a hank of yarn.”]
HOWARD’S USAGE:
He knew men, and he knew that to gain his end he must smite straight with this tigerish barbarian, who, like a wolf scenting a snare, would scent out unerringly any falseness in the skein of his word-web.
[from “The Shadow Kingdom”]