The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 23.097  Thursday, 8 March 2012

From:        Larry Weiss < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it >

Date:         March 7, 2012 9:16:49 PM EST

Subject:     Re: SHAKSPER: Gig

>S.v. “whipping-top” the OED gives: “A toy of various shapes 

>(cylindrical, obconic, etc.), but always of circular section, with 

>a point on which it is made to spin, usually by the sudden 

>pulling of a string wound round it; the common whip-[top] or 

>whipping-top is kept spinning by lashing it with a whip.”

Strange.  Every spinning top I have ever seen is more or less conical, surely not cylindrical; otherwise it would not have a point on which it could spin.  And, as for whether or not the section is circular, doesn't that depend on the angle of the intersecting plane.