The spinning jenny means the little spinning engine. The word is a corrupt diminutive, ʹginie. It is an error to derive the word from the inventor’s wife or daughter, seeing his wife’s name was Elizabeth, and he had no daughter.
· ·
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
· 
· 
· ·