In Greek mythology, the Minotaur was a creature who was half-man and half-bull, the offspring of Pasiphaë and a bull with which she fell in love.
When these English words were in later times altered to -ue, this spelling was extended to various native words such as clue but also hue and rue.īoth the forms clew and clue were especially used to refer to the ball of thread employed as the means of ‘threading’ a way through a labyrinth or maze in various mythological or legendary narratives, the best-known being that of Theseus. In Middle English, -ew was the normal form even for words from French such as blew, now spelt blue (cf. These three Germanic words are cognate with the synonymous Latin noun glomus ( glomus is for glob-mus and is kindred with globus, the origin of English globe). Of Germanic origin, it is related to Dutch kluwen and German Knäuel, of same meaning. The word is from Old English cliwen, cleowen, meaning a ball formed by winding yarn, twine or thread (it is still one of the meanings of clew). The noun clue appeared as a variant spelling of clew, of same pronunciation. Not frequent until the 17 th century, clue has become the prevailing form of the word in the sense of a fact or idea that serves to reveal something or solve a problem.
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