Now dial. Forms: 1–3 hwitel, 4 whitel, wytel, 5 wytele, 6 whittel, 7– whittle. [OE. hwítel, corresp. to ON. hvítill white bed-cover (Norw. kvitel blanket); f. hwít WHITE a. + -EL1, -LE.] † a. A cloak, mantle. † b. A blanket. c. A baby’s woollen napkin or flannel petticoat. d. A shawl or wrap.
c. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., IV. xxxi. Ða eode þes broðor sume dæʓe þæt he wolde his reon & his hwitlas [saga] … in sæ wæscan.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gen. ix. 23. Sem and Iafeth dydon anne hwitel [pallium] on hira sculdra.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 214. Boðe schulen beon of wurmes his kurtel [v.r. hwitel] & his kuuertur.
a. 1300. Walter of Henley’s Husb. (1890), 4. Wo þat strechet forþerre þan his wytel wyle reche in þe straue his fet he mot streche.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XVII. 76. When he streyneþ hym to strecche, þe straw is hus whitel.
1422. Will of Olney (Somerset Ho.). j wytele & j chete.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, Crepundia,… the first apparayle of children, as, swathes, whittels, wastecoates, and such lyke.
1668. in Alice M. Earle, Costume Colonial Times (1894), 257. Jane Humphreys, of Dorchester, had, in 1668, ‘a whittle that was fringed.’
1697. in C. Worthy, Devon. Wills (1896), 214. To sister, Rachel Tucker, ny largest red whittle.
1700. J. Brome, Trav. Eng., 234. The [Devonshire] Women have a peculiar sort of Garment, which they wear upon their Shoulders, called Whittles, they are like Mantles with fringes about the edges.
1755. Connoisseur, No. 80. ¶ 7. As great a store of caps, clouts, biggens, belly-bands, whittles, and all kinds of childbed-linnen, is would set up a Lying-in Hospital.
1850. Smedley, F. Fairlegh, xiv. I sought out the … old lady, whose shawl I had so unceremoniously made use of [to extinguish fire]…. I believe … she considered Miss Saville’s safety dearly purchased at the expense of her favourite whittle.
1871. Mrs. H. Wood, Dene Hollow, xxiv. In a coarse red shawl—or, as it was called then, ‘whittle,’… Emma Geash started.
