Net

Everyone knows what a net is, and probably the word s used more today than it ever has been before because of the internet, intranet, extranet, darknet, networking, social networks and so on… but net, as in a net that you catch things in, or networking as in a physical rather than a virtual thing… well, where does the word come from?

I’m thinking of net as a physical thing made from fibres and used to hold or catch something, not net as in net result, net weight etc, Well, it probably comes as no surprise that the word is an old English word, derived from or with similar roots to Old Saxon/Dutch/Norse/Swedish etc meaning ‘net’ coming from the idea of knotting or twisting something together.

Nets can be used for all sorts of things – in sports such as… netball! Football net, tennis net, hockey net, cricket nets and so on; these nets can be used to score into or to hit something over. Nets can be used in hunting, fish, birds and game, butterflies, and then keeping the hunted creature… in a keep net. Old ladies from my childhood would always have their hair kept tidy in a hair net, trapeze artists might have a safety net, and the police might close their net on a criminal!

nets… useful things!