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WonderWord origin

'Clue' comes from 'clew', an old word for a ball of thread. It took on the meaning of a hint because of the Greek myth in which Ariadne gives Theseus a ball of thread to find his way out of the Labyrinth.

Merriam-Webster

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The story behind the card

In the myth, King Minos of Crete kept the Minotaur, a monster that was half man and half bull, in a maze built by the craftsman Daedalus. Theseus, a prince of Athens, came to kill it. Minos's daughter Ariadne gave him a ball of thread, which he tied at the entrance and unwound as he went in, so he could follow it back out. English writers came to speak of the 'clew' that guides a person through any maze or puzzle, and by the 1620s the word meant anything that points the way. The spelling 'clue' had appeared in the 1400s. Sailors still keep the old spelling: the clew is the lower corner of a sail. Turkish tells the same story in one word: ipucu literally means 'the end of the thread'.

Türkçe oku
İngilizcedeki “clue” (ipucu), ip yumağı anlamına gelen eski “clew” sözcüğünden gelir. “Yol gösteren iz” anlamını ise bir Yunan mitinden almıştır: Ariadne, Theseus labirentten çıkış yolunu bulsun diye ona bir ip yumağı verir.

Mite göre Girit Kralı Minos, yarı insan yarı boğa bir canavar olan Minotor'u, usta zanaatkâr Daidalos'un yaptığı bir labirentte tutuyordu. Atina prensi Theseus canavarı öldürmeye geldi. Minos'un kızı Ariadne ona bir ip yumağı verdi. Theseus ipin ucunu girişe bağladı, ilerledikçe yumağı çözdü, dönüşte de ipi izleyerek dışarı çıktı. İngiliz yazarlar zamanla her türlü karmaşadan ya da bilmeceden çıkış yolunu gösteren şeye “clew” demeye başladı; 1620'lere gelindiğinde sözcük, yol gösteren her şeyi anlatıyordu. “Clue” yazımı 15. yüzyılda ortaya çıkmıştı. Denizcilik İngilizcesinde eski yazım hâlâ yaşar: Yelkenin alt köşesine “clew” denir. Türkçe de aynı hikâyeyi tek bir sözcükte saklar: İpucu, kelimesi kelimesine “ipin ucu” demektir.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Ariadne
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