flēos
flēos
Old English
“The word 'fleece' has meant a sheep's woolly coat for over a thousand years — and then in 1979, Malden Mills invented a synthetic fabric and called it fleece too, because it felt like one.”
Fleece comes from Old English flēos or flīes, from Proto-Germanic *flusą, meaning the woolly covering of a sheep. The word is ancient: cognates appear in Old Frisian (flūs), Middle Low German (vlūs), and Dutch (vlies). The Golden Fleece of Greek mythology — the object of Jason and the Argonauts' quest — was a flēos in Old English retellings. The word has meant sheep's wool for as long as English has existed.
In 1979, Malden Mills (now Polartec) in Lawrence, Massachusetts, developed a synthetic fabric made from polyester that mimicked the insulating properties of wool. Aaron Feuerstein, the company's owner, worked with Patagonia's Yvon Chouinard to develop and market the material. They called it polar fleece — fleece because it felt like sheep's wool, polar because it was designed for cold weather. The natural word was borrowed for a synthetic product.
Synthetic fleece transformed outdoor clothing. It was lighter than wool, dried faster, retained warmth when wet, and could be made from recycled plastic bottles. By the 1990s, fleece jackets were ubiquitous — from mountain summits to suburban school runs. The word fleece, which had meant sheep's wool since the Anglo-Saxons, now primarily meant a polyester jacket to most English speakers under forty.
The verb 'to fleece' (meaning to swindle or overcharge) dates to the 1570s — from the image of shearing a sheep. The synthetic fabric added an ironic layer: a fleece jacket costs more than the sheep's wool it imitates. The word that originally meant a free, renewable resource on a sheep's back now names a manufactured product with a price tag.
Related Words
Today
Fleece means two things now. An older person hears the word and thinks of a sheep. A younger person hears it and thinks of a jacket. The word split in 1979, when synthetic fleece was invented, and the synthetic meaning is winning.
A sheep grows its fleece for free. A factory makes its fleece from petroleum. The word is the same. The economics are not. The Anglo-Saxon farmer sheared his sheep and wore the fleece. The modern consumer buys a fleece jacket made from recycled bottles. The word connects them across twelve centuries of textile history.
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