- 1
A cloth head-covering that a woman wears wrapped around her head and neck, leaving only the face showing. Today you will almost only meet it in one place: on a nun. That white or black cloth framing a nun's face in old photographs and films is a wimple, and it is the reason the word survives at all. Historically it was ordinary clothing, not religious clothing. In medieval Europe a married woman was expected to cover her hair in public, and the wimple was the normal way to do it — a length of linen or silk over the head, tucked in around the throat, often held with pins. It went out of fashion for ordinary women hundreds of years ago, but religious orders kept their old style of dress, so the wimple stayed with them. Because of that, the word now feels historical or church-related. If you use it about a modern scarf, English speakers will find it odd or funny. Note that a wimple covers the neck and sides of the face, so it is not the same as a veil, which hangs loose, or a simple hair scarf. Many modern nuns wear much simpler clothes and no wimple at all, so even in the thing is becoming rare. There is also an old verb 'to wimple', meaning to fold, ripple, or cover in folds — a stream can wimple over stones — but you will only see this in poetry, and you never need to produce it yourself.
（修女的）頭巾、面紗頭巾；中世紀婦女包住頭與頸的頭巾
組成從中古英語 wympel、古英語 wimpel「面紗、頸部覆蓋物」而來，再往上是原始日耳曼語 *wimpilaz。同源詞遍布日耳曼語族：荷蘭語 wimpel、德語 Wimpel、瑞典語 vimpel，不過在那些語言裡意思漂移成了「長條旗、三角旗」——都是「一塊飄動的布」這個核心畫面。
原始詞典資料10 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
Wimplename
- 1
A surname.
wimplenoun詞源 1/ˈwɪmpəl/
- 1
A cloth which usually covers the head and is worn around the neck and chin. It was worn by women in medieval Europe and is still worn by nuns in certain orders.
- [T]he people all wore hosen and shoon and smocks and jupes and jerkins and wimples.
- There are two tombs, each bearing effigies of a knight and his lady. One is 14th century, the other 15th century. The earlier knight wears chain mail and his lady has long, flowing hair. The later knight has plate armour, and his wife wears a wimple.
- 2
A fold or pleat in cloth.
- 3
A ripple, as on the surface of water.
- 4
A curve or bend.
- 5
A flag or streamer.
wimpleverb詞源 2/ˈwɪmpəl/
- 1
To cover with a wimple.
- this wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy
- 2
To draw down; to lower, like a veil.
- IV A lovely Ladie[*] rode him faire beside, Upon a lowly Asse more white then snow, Yet she much whiter, but the same did hide 30 Under a vele, that wimpled was full low, And over all a blacke stole she did throw, As one that inly mournd: so was she sad, And heavie sat upon her palfrey slow; Seemed in heart some hidden care she had, 35 And by her in a line a milke white lambe she lad.
- 3
To cause to appear as if laid in folds or plaits; to cause to ripple or undulate.
- The wind wimples the surface of water.
- [T]hoſe fair Straths that vvater’d are / VVith Tay and Tvveed’s ſmooth Streams, / VVhich gentily and daintily / Eat dovvn the flovvry Braes; / As greatly and quietly / They vvimple to the Seas.
- 4
To flutter.
- Stars wavered and wimpled in the black waters of the Hudson as a launch put out in silence from the foot of Twenty-seventh Street.
- She wimpled about in the pale moonbeam, Like a feather that floats on a wind tossed-stream; And momently athwart her track The quarl upreared his island back, And the fluttering scallop behind would float, And patter the water about the boat; But he bailed her out with his colen-bell, And he kept her trimmed with a wary tread, While on every side like lightening fell
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。