Mysteries of vernacular: Clue - Jessica Oreck

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Mysteries of vernacular.

Clue: something that serves to guide in the solution of a mystery or crime. Before the popularization of detective fiction, clue was just as frequently spelled "clew," and both spellings historically meant a ball of yarn or thread. But the current definition developed from Greek mythology.

Theseus, king of Athens, was to be sacrificed to the Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull that lived in an almost impossible labyrinth. In order to survive, Theseus would have to locate and kill the Minotaur and then find his way back out of the labyrinth. Luckily, Theseus had a lover, Ariadne, who gave him exactly what he needed to escape the maze: a clue, or ball of string.

When Theseus entered the labyrinth, he laid down the string as he went, and after killing the Minotaur, wound up as he returned, following its certain path out of the maze. From Chaucer's times, allusions to this clue to a maze had been linked with various methods of problem-solving, so that by the 17th century all associations with a ball of string had been forgotten, and the word "clue" now solely means guide to a solution. Mystery solved.

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