Etymology From Middle English wollen, wullen, from Old English wyllen, from Proto-Germanic *wullīnaz (“woollen”), equivalent to wool + -en. Cognate with Scots wollin, wolne, wowne (“woollen”), Dutch wollen (“woollen”), German wollen (“woollen”), Danish uldne (“woollen”), Norwegian Bokmål ullen (“fuzzy; woolen”).
In a large bedroom upstairs, the window of which was thickly curtained with a great woollen shawl lately discarded by the landlady, Mrs. Rolliver, were gathered on this evening nearly a dozen persons, all seeking vinous bliss; all old inhabitants of the nearer end of Marlott, and frequenters of this retreat.1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter IV, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume I, London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC, phase the first (The Maiden), pages 40–41:
Woolen threads were an occult means, according to the Roman poet Horace, of depriving a person of virility.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 234:
Etymology From Middle English wollen, wullen, from Old English wyllen, from Proto-Germanic *wullīnaz (“woollen”), equivalent to wool + -en. Cognate with Scots wollin, wolne, wowne (“woollen”), Dutch wollen (“woollen”), German wollen (“woollen”), Danish uldne (“woollen”), Norwegian Bokmål ullen (“fuzzy; woolen”).
American woolens could not compete with British fabrics when quality was important.1979, Kax Wilson, A History of Textiles, Westview Press, →ISBN, page 240: