Old English spinnan "draw out and twist fibers into thread," from Proto-Germanic *spenwanan (cf. Old Norse and Old Frisian spinna, Danish spinde, Dutch spinnen, Old High German spinnan, German spinnen, Gothic spinnan), from PIE *(s)pen- "stretch" (cf. Armenian henum "I weave;" Greek patos "garment, literally "that which is spun;" Lithuanian pinu "I plait, braid," spandau "I spin;" Middle Welsh cy-ffiniden "spider;" see span (v.)).
Sense of "to cause to turn rapidly" is from 1610s; meaning "revolve, turn around rapidly" first recorded 1660s. Meaning "attempt to influence reporters' minds after an event has taken place but before they have written about it" seems to have risen to popularity in the 1984 U.S. presidential campaign; e.g. spin doctor, first attested 1984. Spinning wheel is attested from c.1400; spinning-jenny is from 1783 (see jenny); invented by James Hargreaves c.1764-7, patented 1770.
"fairly rapid ride," 1856, from spin (v.).
: A distinctive point of view, emphasis, or interpretation; a distinctive character or style: He put a spin on the facts
[1979+; fr the notion of spin on a baseball or pool ball, which gives a deviant rather than a straight track; semantically related to throwing someone a curve]
programming, jargon
Equivalent to buzz. More common among C and Unix programmers.
[Jargon File]
(2008-01-21)