page_title: Distaff
section_title: Other meanings
hierarchical_section_title: Distaff / Other meanings
context_page_description: A distaff is a tool used in spinning. It is designed to hold the unspun fibers, keeping them untangled and thus easing the spinning process. It is most commonly used to hold flax, and sometimes wool, but can be used for any type of fiber. Fiber is wrapped around the distaff, and tied in place with a piece of ribbon or string. The word comes from dis in Low German, meaning a bunch of flax, connected with staff.
  As an adjective the term distaff is used to describe the female side of a family. The corresponding term for the male side of a family is the "spear" side.
context_section_description: The term distaff is also used as an adjective to describe the matrilineal branch of a family, i.e., to the person's mother and her blood relatives. This term developed in the English-speaking communities where a distaff spinning tool was used often to symbolize domestic life.
  One still recognized use of the term is in horse racing, in which races limited to female horses are referred to as distaff races. From 1984 until 2007, at the American Breeders' Cup, the major race for fillies and mares was the Breeders' Cup Distaff. From 2008 to 2012, the event was referred to as the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic. Starting in 2013, the name of the race changed back to being called the Breeders' Cup Distaff. It is commonly regarded as the female analog to the better-known Breeders' Cup Classic, though female horses are not barred from entering that race.
  In Norse mythology, the goddess Frigg spins clouds from her bejewelled distaff in the Norse constellation known as Frigg's Spinning Wheel (Friggerock, also known as Orion's belt).
caption: The Spinner by Wilhelm Leibl (1892), features spinning flax from a distaff
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