throstle

Etymology

From Middle English throstle, throstel, from Old English þrostle, from Proto-Germanic *þrustlō, possibly altered from or a diminutive of *þurstaz, related to *þrastuz, from Proto-Indo-European *trosdos. Cognate with German Drossel, Old Saxon throsla, Old High German droscala. The spinning machine is named for the songbird, from the sound made when it is working.

noun

1. (dialectal or archaic) A song thrush.
   The throstle is by some believed to be the finest singing bird in Britain, on account of the sweetness, variety, and continuance of its melody. 1804, Anthony Florian Madinger Willich, James Mease, The Domestic Encyclopaedia: or, A Dictionary of Facts and Useful Knowledge, page 115
   O Lady! in this wan and heartless mood / To other thoughts by yonder throstle woo'd 1802, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Dejection: An Ode, lines 25-26
2. A machine for spinning wool, cotton, etc., from the rove, consisting of a set of drawing rollers with bobbins and flyers, and differing from the mule in having the twisting apparatus stationary and the processes continuous.
   THE RING THROSTLE. / A Throstle under the above title has been recently introduced from America, the principal novel feature of which, is a substitute for the flyer and heavy spindle of the common throstle, and for the cone or cape, and the barrel tube of the Danforth throstle. 1836, James Montgomery, The Theory and Practice of Cotton Spinning, or, The Carding and Spinning Master’s Assistant, page 223