Tweed
Tweed names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Tweed a soft, twilled
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a soft, twilled, woolen textile, woven in a plain or small check, or a plaid effect. Although quite heavy, the fabric is somewhat loose and elastic. Scotland was the home of tweed; Scotch tweed is still regarded as specially desirable although the fabric is produced in the United States . The name tweed was given to this fabric in a peculiar way. Until about 1870 these textiles were called simply twills, which word the Scotch pronounce "tweels." In a certain lawsuit in London, the word occurring in an invoice of goods was read incorrectly "tweed," which has ever since been used to designate this class of goods. It seems especially appropriate, as they are manufactured largely in southern Scotland near the river Tweed.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a cloth, so called from the name of the river which falls into the sea at Berwick, where it is largely manufactured. It is said, however, that some cloth called on an invoice tweels, or tweeled, that is, woven diagonally, having been sent to London, the word, which was blotted or imperfectly written, was misread Tweed, and as the cloth was manufactured in the valley of the Tweed, and the designation tweed was consequently an appropriate one, it was allowed to stand, even after the error had been detected.
Tweed WILLIAM MARCY, an American politician
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
WILLIAM MARCY, an American politician; born in New York City, April 3, 1823; began life as a chairmaker; became an alderman; was in Congress in 1853-1855; was chairman of the board of supervisors of New York City in 1856, and school commissioner in 1856-1857. He was twice sent to the State Senate, and in 1870 was appointed commissioner of public works for the city. He had previously been chairman of the general committee of Tammany Hall and grand sachem. As head of the "Tweed Ring," composed of influential and unscrupulous politicians, he succeeded in obtaining control of the funds of the city government and distributed almost unlimited patronage to his friends. He was brought to trial in 1873; convicted on no less than 12 charges of fraud; and was sent to the penitentiary for 12 years. A reversal of his sentence was obtained in 1875, but he was again imprisoned for lack of bail on a series of civil suits. He broke jail and escaped to Spain, but was captured, sent back to New York on a warship, warshi and recommitted to Ludlow street jail, where he died, April 12, 1878.
Tweed a river of Scotland
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a river of Scotland, which rises in the S. part of Peeblesshire, passes by or near to Peebles, Melrose, Kelso, Coldstream, from near which place it forms the boundary line between England and Scotland for 16 miles, runs through England for a short distance, and then enters the North Sea at Berwick; total length, 97 miles. Its tributaries include the Ettrick, Gala, Leader, Teviot, Eden, and Till. Its waters abound with salmon and trout, and its name is celebrated in connection with some of the best literature of Scotland.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 dating of the name to "about 1870" is too late — the trade was already selling "tweed" by the 1840s, and the story of the blotted invoice misread in London, repeated by both Aiton's and Collier's in 1921, is now treated by etymologists as an entertaining but unverifiable tale rather than settled fact. The cloth itself has been given legal protection the old accounts could not have described: Harris Tweed, stamped with the Orb mark since the Harris Tweed Association's registration in 1910, was defined by its own Act of Parliament in 1993 as cloth handwoven by islanders in their homes in the Outer Hebrides. The Border mills that Aiton's had in mind at Galashiels and Hawick have largely closed, though the river is unchanged at 97 miles and still one of Britain's great salmon waters. William Marcy Tweed remains the standard American byword for municipal corruption, with modern estimates of the Ring's plunder running into the tens of millions of 1870s dollars.
Written for this edition, 2026.