/ · 1894 Brewer’s · J · Jenny
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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.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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