Cyprus

cypres (alternative obsolete)
cypress (alternative)

From Latin Cyprus, from Ancient Greek Κύπρος (Kúpros).

Seated in an arm-chair, covered with cloth of gold, was the Queen; her robe was of black velvet, edged with the richest sable; and the diadem at the back of her head confined the folds of a long black Cyprus veil.

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 131:

(historical, textiles) A thin, translucent, usually black fabric, a kind of crape.


Italian

en-noun

Italian (countable and uncountable, plural Italians)

From Middle English Italian, from Medieval Latin Italiānus, from Latin Italia (“Italy”).

(countable, textiles) Ellipsis of Italian cloth.


duck

duck (countable and uncountable, plural ducks)

ducks (plural)
dook (alternative)
doock (alternative)

From Dutch doek, from Middle Dutch doeck, doec (“linen cloth”), from Old Dutch *dōc, from Proto-West Germanic *dōk, from Proto-Germanic *dōkaz (“cloth, rag”), from Proto-Indo-European *dwōg-, *dwōk-. Cognate with German Tuch (“cloth”), Swedish duk (“cloth, canvas”), Icelandic dúkur (“cloth, fabric”). Doublet of doek.

He was dressed in a Jaeger vest—a pair of blue duck trousers, fastened round the waist with a plaited leather belt.

1912, Katherine Mansfield, “The Woman At The Store”, in Selected Short Stories:

A tightly-woven cotton fabric used as sailcloth.


khaki

khaki (countable and uncountable, plural khakis or (especially sense 5) khakies)

khakis (plural)
khakies (especially plural)
carkee (alternative obsolete)
carky (alternative obsolete)
karkey (alternative obsolete)
khakee (alternative obsolete)
kharkee (alternative obsolete)
kharki (alternative obsolete)

cocky (some accents with the father-bother merger)

Borrowed from Hindustani خاکی / ख़ाकी (xākī), from Classical Persian خاکی (xākī, “dusty, earthy, earth-colored”).
Sense 5 was coined in reference to the colour of the uniform of British troops during the Second Boer War; compare rooinek.

der

1921, War work of the Bureau of Standards, no. 46, page 54.
The English Government for a long time has used a type of pigmented dope cover, khaki colored by iron pigments and lampblack, which is called P. C. 10.

2007, Yuji Matsuki, American Fighters Over Europe: Colors & Markings of USAAF Fighters in WWII, page 4, →ISBN.
At the end of World War I, the U.S. Army Air Service painted everything khaki. This khaki was practically the same as British PC10 and can be considered the basis of the later olive drab color.

In these notes we have used the British rather than the US terms for colours: i.e. 'khaki' here means the drab brown - US 'olive drab' - used for woolen uniforms and 'khaki drill' for the pale yellowish tan - US 'khaki' - used for lightweight summer/tropical dress.

2010, Martin Windrow, French Foreign Legion: Infantry and Cavalry since 1945, →ISBN, page 52:

The very loose seroual trousers were made in both sand-khaki drill, and in winter-weight khaki wool for wear with the M1946 battledress blouse.


MC

en-noun

MC (countable and uncountable, plural MCs or MC's)

(textiles) Initialism of matching colour.


fell

From Middle English fellen, from Old English fellan, fiellan (“to cause to fall, strike down, fell, cut down, throw down, defeat, destroy, kill, tumble, cause to stumble”), from Proto-West Germanic *fallijan, from Proto-Germanic *fallijaną (“to fell, to cause to fall”), causative of Proto-Germanic *fallaną (“to fall”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂peh₃lH-.
Cognate with Dutch vellen (“to fell, cut down”), German fällen (“to fell”), Danish fælde (“to fell”), Norwegian felle (“to fell”).

inh

(textiles) The end of a web, formed by the last thread of the weft.


card

en-noun

card (countable and uncountable, plural cards)

From Middle English carde, Old French carde, from Old Occitan carda, deverbal from cardar, from Late Latin *carito, from Latin carō (“to comb with a card”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”).

(dated, textiles) A comb- or brush-like device or tool to raise the nap on a fabric.

(textiles) A hand-held tool formed similarly to a hairbrush but with bristles of wire or other rigid material. It is used principally with raw cotton, wool, hair, or other natural fibers to prepare these materials for spinning into yarn or thread on a spinning wheel, with a whorl or other hand-held spindle. The card serves to untangle, clean, remove debris from, and lay the fibers straight.

kaardplank

hand-held tool for preparing materials for spinning

(dated, textiles) A machine for disentangling the fibres of wool prior to spinning.

kaardrol

machine for disentagling the fibres of wool prior to spinning


card

en-verb

card (third-person singular simple present cards, present participle carding, simple past and past participle carded)

cards (present singular third-person)
carding (participle present)
carded (participle past)
carded (past)

From Middle English carden, from Old French carder, from carde (“cotton card”); see Etymology 2 for more.

"Isn't that true, Bertha? " asked the smith. "Yes, every word of it, my lad," said Mother Bertha, who was sitting near the hearth carding.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 252:

(textiles) To use a carding device to disentangle the fibres of wool prior to spinning.


cotton

en-noun

cotton (usually uncountable, plural cottons)

From Middle English cotoun, from Anglo-Norman cotun, Old French coton, from (Genoese) Old Italian cotone, from Arabic قُطُن (quṭun).

Now that she had rested and had fed from the luncheon tray Mrs. Broome had just removed, she had reverted to her normal gaiety. She looked cool in a grey tailored cotton dress with a terracotta scarf and shoes and her hair a black silk helmet.

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 2, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

(uncountable, textiles) Textiles made from the fiber harvested from a cotton plant, especially Gossypium.


cloth

cloth (countable and uncountable, plural cloths or (obsolete) clothes)

cloths (plural)
clothes (obsolete plural)
cloath (alternative obsolete)
clath (alternative Scotland)
clathe (alternative Scotland)
claith (alternative Scotland)

From Middle English cloth, clath, from Old English clāþ (“cloth, clothes, covering, sail”), from Proto-Germanic *klaiþą (“garment”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *gleyt- (“to cling to, cleave, stick”) (compare Albanian ngjit (“to stick, attach, glue”)), a form of *gleh₁y- (“to smear; to stick”). Cognate with Scots clath (“cloth”), North Frisian klaid (“dress, garment”), Saterland Frisian Klood (“dress, apparel”), West Frisian kleed (“cloth, article of clothing”), Dutch kleed (“robe, dress”), Low German kleed (“dress, garment”), German Kleid (“gown, dress”), Danish klæde (“cloth, dress”), Norwegian klede, Swedish kläde (“cloth”), Icelandic klæði (“cloth, dressing”), Old English clīþan (“to adhere, stick”).

cog

But he could not come in the white cloth of celebration to a burial service, and he could hardly come in the cloth of mourning to celebrate his two decades on the stool.

1993, Kwame Anthony Appiah, In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture, →ISBN, page 185:

Wearing the cloth of kings would seem to be an appropriate symbol.

2004, Alison Dundes Renteln, The Cultural Defense, →ISBN, page 151:

Occasionally the most fortunate found a jewel, a golden-encrusted dagger, a ring, or some other precious gem which decorated the cloths of glory the Persian chieftains and satraps wore.

2013, Paul Doherty, The House of Death, →ISBN:

The Old Testament Ministers of God, Aaron and his sons, who were the priests, wore special 'cloths of service.' They were dressed in 'holy garments' so that they could stand and offer in the Presence of God, being beautified by them and being enabled through them to perform their sacred duties.

2016, Stephen John Goundry, Hot Coals of Fire: The Sanctity of the Ministry, →ISBN:

A form of attire that represents a particular profession or status.


brake

Late Middle English, from Middle Low German brake, Dutch braak, Old Dutch braeke; possibly related to sense 1.

(textiles) A tool used for breaking flax or hemp.

мъначка

tool for crushing and beating flax or hemp


handle

desctree

→ Japanese: ハンドル (handoru)
→ Hokkien: 捍多路 (hăn-tó͘-luh)
→ Sakizaya: handulu

From Middle English handel, handle, from Old English handle (“a handle”), from handlian (“to handle, feel, deal with, discuss”). See verb below. Cognate with Danish handel (“a handle”).

(textiles) The tactile qualities of a fabric, e.g., softness, firmness, elasticity, fineness, resilience, and other qualities perceived by touch.


perch

From Middle English perche, from Old French perche, from Latin pertica (“staff”, “long pole”, “measuring rod”).

der

(textiles) A frame used to examine cloth.


perch

en-verb

perch (third-person singular simple present perches, present participle perching, simple past and past participle perched)

perches (present singular third-person)
perching (participle present)
perched (participle past)
perched (past)

(transitive, intransitive, textiles) To inspect cloth using a perch.


waffle

The noun is borrowed from Dutch wafel (“waffle; wafer”), from Middle Dutch wafel, wafele, wavel, from Old Dutch *wāvila, from Proto-Germanic *wēbilǭ, *wēbilō, possibly related to Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”) (whence Dutch weven (“to weave”) and English weave; compare, from the same verbal root, German Wabe (“honeycomb”), given that the grid pattern of the traditional Dutch lent and holiday pastry strikingly resembles a honeycomb), and possibly reinforced by German Waffel (“waffle; wafer”). The English word is a doublet of wafer and gauffre.
The verb (“to smash”) derives from the manner in which batter is pressed into the shape of a waffle between the two halves of a waffle iron.

der

(textiles, chiefly attributively) A type of fabric woven with a honeycomb texture.


radium

en-noun

radium (countable and uncountable, plural radiums)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-radium.wav

Borrowed from French radium, from rad(ioactif) (“radioactive”) + -ium (suffix used to form the names of metallic elements).

suffix

City retailers are doing well with high-class radiums printed in bright greens, brilliant purples and strong yellows. Such are the high novelties.

1913 January 11, “[Dress Fabrics […]] Silks Moving Well: An Excellent Business Assured for the Coming Spring Season”, in Dry Goods Economist, volume 67, number 3575, New York, N.Y.: The Textile Publishing Co., →OCLC, page 33, column 1:

In printed silks for outer garments and linings there are crêpe de chines, silk and cotton crêpes, georgettes, radiums and mousselines de soie. [...] [O]n radiums; Japanese print designs, silhouetted with parasols or flowers and shrubs, treated in Japanese style, on dark grounds, are employed. There are also a number of futuristic figures printed on radiums.

1920 June, “Many Novelties in French Silks”, in C. R. Clifford, editor, The American Silk Journal, volume XXXIX, number 6, New York, N.Y.: Clifford & Lawton, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 57, column 2:

Radium satins will also be used extensively in the spring season.

1922 November 18, “[Silk Goods Markets] Printed Crepes to be Leader for Spring: Radium Satins and Taffetas Will also Show Their Vantage Points”, in Textile World, volume LXII, number 21, New York, N.Y.: Bragdon, Lord & Nagle Co., →OCLC, page 73 (page 2927 overall), column 3:

Radium, a term rather loosely applied to the bulk of domestic cloths of this class, includes goods of two fairly distinct types. [...] It is often tightly woven under high tension and so finished as to produce a highly lustrous appearance. But high luster is not essential, for many high-grade radiums are given a more or less dull finish. Of whatever finish, various cloths of this type are manufactured sometimes under the designation radium and sometimes under special copyrighted names.

1926, United States Tariff Commission, “Classification of Broad Silks—Character of Domestic Production”, in Broad-silk Manufacture and the Tariff, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, section I (Classification of Broad Silks), page 114:

(textiles, dated) A type of cloth woven from silk or synthetic yarn, often with a shiny appearance.


crash

Uncertain; perhaps compare Russian крашени́на (krašenína, “coarse linen”).

der

The yearly allowance of clothing on this plantation, consisted of two tow-linen shirts—such linen as the coarsest crash towels are made of[…]

1855, Frederick Douglass, chapter VI, in My Bondage and My Freedom. […], New York, Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan […], →OCLC:

Unlocking the door of her bath-room she went inside, and soon emerged, bringing a rug, which she spread upon the floor of the gallery, and two huge hair pillows covered with crash, which she placed against the front of the building.


textile

Borrowed from Latin textile, substantive use of textilis (“woven”), from texō (“weave”).

(usually in the plural) Any material made of interlacing fibres, including carpeting and geotextiles.


discharge

en-verb

discharge (third-person singular simple present discharges, present participle discharging, simple past and past participle discharged)

discharges (present singular third-person)
discharging (participle present)
discharged (participle past)
discharged (past)

/dɪsˈtʃɑːdʒ/

/ˈdɪstʃɑːdʒ/

/dɪsˈtʃɑɹdʒ/

/ˈdɪstʃɑɹdʒ/

-ɪstʃɑː(ɹ)dʒ

From Middle English dischargen, from Old French deschargier (“to unload”), from Late Latin discarricāre (“unload”). By surface analysis, dis- + charge.

to discharge the colour from a dyed fabric in order to form light figures on a dark background

(transitive, textiles) To bleach out or to remove or efface, as by a chemical process.


Orleans

en-noun

Orleans (countable and uncountable, plural Orleans or Orleanses)

Orleans (plural)
Orleanses (plural)
Orléans (alternative)

/ˌɔɹ.leɪˈɑ̃/

/ˌɔɹ.liˈɑːn/

From French Orléans, ultimately from Latin Aurelianum, from the name of the Roman emperor Aurelian, who rebuilt the city. More at Aurelius.

(uncountable, textiles) A cloth made of worsted and cotton, used for making clothes.


check

By shortening from chequer, from Old French eschequier (“chessboard”), from Medieval Latin scaccarium, ultimately from the same Persian root as above.

The tablecloth had red and white checks.

One of her female followers, had made a very elegant piece of check. The Friend, being at her house, on a visit, the lady shewed the check to her, and as evidence of devotion to her leader, proposed presenting her with a pattern off the piece for her own use.

1819, Charles Mowry, in the Downington Pennsylvania American Republican, quoted in Herbery Wisbey, Pioneer Prophetess: Jemima Wilkinson, the Publick Universal Friend

(textiles, usually pluralized) A pattern made up of a grid of squares of alternating colors; a checkered pattern.


gabardine

gabardine (usually uncountable, plural gabardines)

gabardines (plural)
gaberdine (alternative)
garbardine (alternative)

/ˈɡæbəˌdiːn/

Recorded since 1904, altering the earlier gaberdine (“long, coarse outer garment”) (since 1520), from Spanish gabardina (perhaps influenced by gabán (“overcoat”) and tabardina (“coarse coat”)), from Middle French galverdine, itself probably from (Old or Middle) High German wallevart (“pilgrimage”), in the sense of “pilgrim's cloak” (from wallen (“to ambulate”) + vart (“journey”)).

(uncountable, countable) A similar fabric, made from cotton.


loft

loft (countable and uncountable, plural lofts)

From Middle English lofte (“air, sky, upper region, loft”), from Old English loft, (doublet of native Old English lyft) of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse lopt (“upper chamber, attic, region of sky, air”), from Proto-Germanic *luftuz (“air, sky”).
Akin to Scots lift (“air; sky; firmament”), Dutch lucht (“air”), German Luft (“air”), Old English lyft (“air”). Doublet of lift and luft. Related to aloft.

der

maximum loft

(textiles, countable, uncountable) The thickness of a soft object when not under pressure.

korkeus

the thickness of a soft object when not under pressure


course

→ Gulf Arabic: كورس (kōrs)

From Middle English cours, from Old French cours, from Latin cursus (“course of a race”), from currō (“run”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (“to run”). Doublet of cursus and cour.

polku

path that something or someone moves along

the course of true love never did run smooth

(textiles) In weft knitting, a single row of loops connecting the loops of the preceding and following rows.

kerros

textiles: in weft knitting, a single row of loops


pattern

From earlier patten, paterne, from Middle English patron (“patron; example”), from Old French patron, from Medieval Latin patrōnus (“patron”). Doublet of padrone, patron, Patronus, and patroon.

skemo

intelligible arrangement which has a mathematical, geometric, statistical etc. relationship

(textiles) The paper or cardboard template from which the parts of a garment are traced onto fabric prior to cutting out and assembling.

ülgü

the paper or cardboard template from which the parts of a garment are traced onto fabric prior to cutting out


mode

From Old French mode (masculine), from Latin modus (“measure, due measure, rhythm, melody”). Doublet of modus.

tila

mathematics, physics: state of a system represented by an eigenfunction of that system

(textiles) In lace-making, a small decorative piece inserted into a pattern.

(textiles) The openwork between the solid parts of a pattern.

(obsolete) A woman's mantle with a hood.


canvas

canvases (plural)
canvasses (plural)
canvass (alternative)

From Middle English canevas, from Anglo-Norman, from Old Northern French canevas (compare Old French chanevas, chenevas) from a root derived from Latin cannabis, from Ancient Greek κάνναβις (kánnabis). Compare French canevas, resulting from a blend of the Old French and a Picard dialect word, itself from Old Northern French. Doublet of cannabis and hemp.

A mesh of loosely woven cotton strands or molded plastic to be decorated with needlepoint, cross-stitch, rug hooking, or other crafts.


cotton wool

en-noun

cotton wool (usually uncountable, plural cotton wools)

(US) Raw fibers of cotton before being processed.

(UK) Soft, absorbent cotton for medical or cosmetic use, protective padding, etc.


bier

From Middle English beer, beere, bere, from Old English bēr, (West Saxon) bǣr (“stretcher, bier”), from Proto-West Germanic *bāru, from Proto-Germanic *bērō, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carry, bear”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Beere (“stretcher, bier”), Dutch baar (“bier”), German Bahre (“bier, stretcher”). More at bear.

cog

They bore him bare-faced on the bier.

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v]:

A litter to transport the corpse of a dead person.

جَنَازَة

On April 5, 1925, Chiang Kai-shek returned from the First Eastern Expedition to the Whampoa Military Academy to officiate at a funeral service for Sun Yat-sen, who had died in Peking on March 12. Huang Chi-lu, then a young professor of political science at the University of Kwangtung and destined to become director of the Kuomintang Archives some forty years later, has informed us of the display of strong emotion evidenced by Chiang on this occasion: "The service was officiated by Mr. Chiang and Liao Chung-k'ai and was attended by over four thousand officers, cadets, and soldiers. As the funeral ceremonies began, Mr. Chiang, unable to control himself, wept bitterly and audibly, causing all in the assembly to shed tears."¹ Three years later, at the conclusion of the Northern Expedition, a similarly melodramatic scene unfolded before the eyes of the public as Chiang visited Sun's bier in the suburbs of Peking.

1971, Pichon Pei Yung Loh, The early Chiang Kai-shek: A STUDY OF HIS PERSONALITY AND POLITICS, 1887-1924, Columbia University Press, page 1:

A platform or stand where a body or coffin is placed.

katafalk

Edward H[enry] Knight
w:Edward H. Knight

A count of forty threads in the warp or chain of woollen cloth.


runner

From Middle English rennere, rynner, urnare, equivalent to run + -er. Cognate with Old Norse rennari (“runner; messenger”). Displaced earlier Middle English runel (“runner”), from Old English rynel (“runner”; also “messenger, courier”).

vrapues

somebody who runs, who moves at a fast pace

махови́к

mechanical part intended to guide or aid something else to move

A person hired by a gambling establishment to locate potential customers and bring them in.


carpet

en-noun

carpet (countable and uncountable, plural carpets)

→ Japanese: カーペット (kāpetto)

→ Korean: 카펫 (kapet)

From late Middle English carpette, from Old French carpite, from Medieval Latin carpita or Italian carpita, introduced in the 13th century by the Florentines from the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, from Middle Armenian կարպետ (karpet, “carpet, rug”), earlier կապերտ (kapert).

der

A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; as, again, the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire.

1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0016:

The railways are anxious to refurbish their stations and rolling stock when they can get labour and materials, although it is unlikely that they contemplate deep carpets in wayside waiting rooms. Lack of carpets at present is not confined to railways, and roaring fires in the present fuel scarcity would probably be considered anti-social in wayside waiting rooms.

1946 March and April, “State Railway Dreams”, in Railway Magazine, page 67:

The half-dozen pieces […] were painted white and carved with festoons of flowers, birds and cupids. To display them the walls had been tinted a vivid blue which had now faded, but the carpet, which had evidently been stored and recently relaid, retained its original turquoise.

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

A fabric used as a complete floor covering.

និសីទន

nisəytĕəʼnĕəʼ


bias

en-noun

bias (countable and uncountable, plural biases or biasses)

c. 1520 in the sense "oblique line". As a technical term in the game of bowls c. 1560, whence the figurative use (c. 1570).
From Middle French biais, adverbially ("sideways, askance, against the grain") c. 1250, as a noun ("oblique angle, slant") from the late 16th century.
The French word is likely from Old Occitan biais, itself of obscure origin, most likely from Vulgar Latin *biaxius (“with two axes”).

(countable, textiles) The diagonal line between warp and weft in a woven fabric.

(countable, textiles) A wedge-shaped piece of cloth taken out of a garment (such as the waist of a dress) to diminish its circumference.


cataract

From Late Middle English cataract, cataracta, cateract, cateracte (“(medicine) clouding of the lens in the eye”), from Old French cataracte (“clouding of the lens in the eye”), and then either:
* from its etymon Latin cataracta (“portcullis”) (in the sense of something blocking vision as a portcullis blocks a gateway), from Ancient Greek καταρ(ρ)άκτης (katar(rh)áktēs, “act of rushing down; portcullis”) (see further at etymology 1); or
* from clāthrāta (in fenestra clāthrāta (“window grating”)), an inflected form of clāthrātus (“grated, latticed, clathrate”), from clāthrī (“grate, lattic”) + -ātus (suffix denoting possession of something, forming adjectives from nouns). Clāthrī is derived from Doric Greek κλᾳ̃θρα (klãithra), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kleh₂w- (“crook, hook; peg; to close something”).

der

καταρ(ρ)άκτης

Some modern Pantagruelists, to shun and avoid that manual Labour, which such a separating and partitional Work would of necessity require, employ certain Catarratick Instruments, […] and athwart those Cataracts they break and bruise to very Trash the woody parcels [of the fictional herb “pantagruelion”], thereby to preserve the better the Fibres, which are the precious and excellent parts.

1653, Francis Rabelais [i.e., François Rabelais], translated by [Thomas Urquhart, Peter Anthony Motteux], “How the Famous Pantagruelion ought to be Prepared and Wrought”, in The Works of Francis Rabelais, Doctor in Physick: Containing Five Books of the Lives, Heroick Deeds, and Sayings of Gargantua, and His Sonne Pantagruel. […], London: […] [Thomas Ratcliffe and Edward Mottershead] for Richard Baddeley, […], →OCLC; republished in volume II, London: […] Navarre Society […], [1948], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 60:

(obsolete, textiles) A tool used for breaking flax; a brake.


fleece

en-noun

fleece (countable and uncountable, plural fleeces)

From Middle English flees, flese, flus, fleos, from Old English flēos, flīes, flȳs, from Proto-West Germanic *fleus.

The fine web of cotton or wool removed by the doffing knife from the cylinder of a carding machine.


pique

pique (countable and uncountable, plural piques)

A variant of piqué, borrowed from French piqué (“(noun) ribbed fabric; (ballet) step on to the point of the leading foot without bending the knee; (adjective) backstitched; (cooking) larded”), Middle French piqué (“quilted”), a noun use of the past participle of piquer (“to prick, sting; to decorate with stitches; to quilt; to stitch (fabric) together; to lard (meat)”); see further at etymology 1.

der

Pique and linen also accented several coats and oftentimes were both detachable and formed an overcollar covering a collar made from the coat fabric.

1967, Ann Helen Stroup, An Investigation of the Dress of American Children from 1930 Through 1941 with Emphasis on Factors Influencing Change, page 195:

(sewing) Alternative form of piqué (“a kind of corded or ribbed fabric made from cotton, rayon, or silk”).


plaid

en-noun

plaid (countable and uncountable, plural plaids)

From Scots plaid, of uncertain origin; perhaps from a past participle form of ply. Scottish Gaelic plaide (“blanket”) is probably a borrowing from Scots.
Also compare Scottish Gaelic peall (“covering, veil, blanket”) << Latin pellis (“hide, covering”), but the OED finds the sound changes problematic.

cog

It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. He wore shepherd's plaid trousers and the swallow-tail coat of the day, with a figured muslin cravat wound about his wide-spread collar.

1906, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, chapter I, in Chippinge Borough, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., →OCLC, page 01:

(textiles) A type of twilled woollen cloth, often with a tartan or chequered pattern.


mat

Tok Pisin: mat

→ Japanese: マット (matto)

→ Russian: мат (mat)

→ Spanish: mat

→ Welsh: mat

Inherited from Middle English matte, from Old English meatte, from Late Latin matta, from Punic or Phoenician (compare Hebrew מיטה \ מִטָּה (mitá, “bed, couch”)).

מיטה \ מִטָּה

Iceland moss growing in a mat

The fad for blaming all mass extinctions (such as happened at the end of the Cretaceous when the dinosaurs vanished) on impacts of objects from space was extended to the Pleistocene in 2007. That year a group of scientists proposed that the North American extinctions were due to a comet or meteorite impact over the Carolinas, near the beginning of the Younger Dryas event, about 12,900 years ago. The original evidence for this supposed impact was a "black mat" of organic material in many Clovis sites, plus microscopic nano-diamonds in deep-sea cores, and rare Platinum group metals in Greenland ice cores from around 12,900 years ago.

2016 November 15, Donald R. Prothero, The Princeton Field Guide to Prehistoric Mammals, page 222:

A thin surface layer; superficial cover.


fabric

en-noun

fabric (countable and uncountable, plural fabrics)

→ Irish: fabraic

Borrowed from French fabrique, from Latin fabrica (“a workshop, art, trade, product of art, structure, fabric”), from faber (“artisan, workman”). Doublet of forge, borrowed from Old French.

der

cotton fabric

A material made of fibers, a textile or cloth.

The Internet is a fabric of computers connected by routers.

(computing) Interconnected nodes that look like a textile fabric when diagrammed.

verkko

computing: interconnected nodes that look like a textile fabric when diagrammed


fiber

en-noun

fiber (countable and uncountable, plural fibers)

From French fibre, from Old French fibre, from Latin fibra.

Please use polyester fiber for this shirt.

(textiles) A material whose length is at least 1000 times its width.


swift

Swift (disambiguation)
swift (bird)
swift (textiles)

From Middle English swift, from Old English swift (“swift; quick”), from Proto-Germanic *swiftaz (“swift; quick”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)weyp- (“to twist; wind around”). Cognate with Icelandic svipta (“to pull quickly”), Old English swīfan (“to revolve, sweep, wend, intervene”). More at swivel.

cog

(textiles) A light, collapsible reel used to hold a hank of yarn in order to wind off skeins or balls.


batik

en-noun

batik (countable and uncountable, plural batiks)

From Dutch batik, from Javanese bathik (ꦧꦛꦶꦏ꧀).

There were batik dresses in which mingled indigo, orange, green, vermilion, and black; dresses of velvet and chiffon in screaming colors, blood-red, sulphur-yellow, sea-green; and one black and white thing in striking combination.

1928, Nella Larsen, “14”, in Quicksand, page 162:


doff

en-verb

doff (third-person singular simple present doffs, present participle doffing, simple past and past participle doffed)

term-label

(chiefly literary and dated except Northern England)

doffs (present singular third-person)
doffing (participle present)
doffed (participle past)
doffed (past)
doff (infinitive)
doff (first-person present singular)
doffed (first-person past singular)
doff (present second-person singular)
doffest (archaic present second-person singular)
doffed (past second-person singular)
doffedst (archaic past second-person singular)
doffs (present singular third-person)
doffeth (archaic present singular third-person)
doffed (past singular third-person)
doff (plural present)
doffed (past plural)
doff (present subjunctive)
doffed (past subjunctive)
doff (imperative present)
doffing (participle present)
doffed (participle past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-doff.wav

Lipton
Masson Mill
Thomas Lipton
doffing cylinder

PIE word
 *h₂epó
The verb is derived from Late Middle English doffen (“to take off (clothing); to remove (headwear) as a sign of respect; to remove (grease) by skimming”), a contraction of Middle English do off, don off, from Old English dōn of, from dōn (“to do; to put; to take off, remove”) + of (“from; off”). Dōn is derived from Proto-West Germanic *dōn (“to do; to place, put”), from Proto-Germanic *dōną (“to do; to make; to place, put”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to do; to place, put”). By surface analysis, do + off. Compare don (by surface analysis, do + on), dout (do + out), dup (do + up).
The noun is derived from the verb.

свалям

to remove or take off (something worn on the body such as armour or clothing, or something carried)

снемам

(transitive) to remove or tip (a hat or other headwear) in greeting or salutation, or as a mark of respect; (intransitive) to remove or tip a hat or other headwear in greeting or salutation, or as a mark of respect

To remove (a bobbin or spindle which is full of spun yarn) from a spinning frame for replacement with an empty one.

vaihtaa

to remove (a bobbin or spindle which is full of yarn) from a spinning frame for replacement with an empty one

To remove (small pieces of cotton or other plant fibre, etc.) from a carding cylinder.

kuoria

to remove (small pieces of cotton or other plant fibre, etc.) from a carding cylinder


jigger

→ Catalan: gigre

From jig + -er (agent suffix). Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary suggests a possible link to Old High German gīga (“fiddle”).

(textiles) A device used in the dyeing of cloth.


poplin

en-noun

poplin (countable and uncountable, plural poplins)

→ Turkish: poplin

An alteration (taken as related to Pope) of French papeline, a distortion of Poperinge, a town in Flanders which was a centre for textile production.

A fabric of many varieties, usually made of silk and worsted; used especially for women's dresses.


rep

rep (countable and uncountable, plural reps)

Back-formation from reps, misinterpreted as a plural.

Underfoot is a rich brown marble from the shores of Lake Champlain. The wainscoting is of green rep and red Numidian marble.

1923, Theodore Dreiser, The Color of a Great City, New York: Boni & Liveright:

It was decorated in […] horsehair and red rep curtains[.]

1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1965, →OCLC, page 60:

I toted a (rather fetching) $100 Gucci 1955 Horsebit rep through a vacation across Europe […]

2023 May 4, Amy X. Wang, Grant Cornett, “Inside the Delirious Rise of ‘Superfake’ Handbags”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(textiles) A fabric made of silk or wool, or of silk and wool, and having a transversely corded or ribbed surface.


thrum

From Middle English thrum, throm (> Anglo-French trome), from Old English *þrum (found in tungeþrum (“ligament of the tongue”)) from Proto-Germanic *þrumą. Cognate with German Trumm, Trümmer and Old Norse thrǫmr (“edge, brim”).

(mining) A shove out of place; a small displacement or fault along a seam.


beam

From Middle English beem, from Old English bēam (“tree, cross, gallows, column, pillar, wood, beam, splint, post, stock, rafter, piece of wood”), from Proto-West Germanic *baum, from Proto-Germanic *baumaz (“tree, beam, balk”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew- (“to grow, swell”). Cognate with West Frisian beam (“tree”), Saterland Frisian Boom (“tree”), Dutch boom (“tree”), German Low German Boom (“tree”), German Baum (“tree”), Luxembourgish Bam (“tree”), Albanian bimë (“a plant”). Doublet of boom.
The original English meaning of beam ("tree") is preserved in some compound words such as quickbeam.
The verb is from Middle English bemen, from Old English bēamian (“to shine, to cast forth rays or beams of light”), from the noun.

inh

(textiles) A cylinder of wood, making part of a loom, on which weavers wind the warp before weaving and the cylinder on which the cloth is rolled, as it is woven.


drape

From Middle English drape (“a drape”, noun), from Old French draper (“to drape; to full cloth”), from drap (“cloth, drabcloth”), from Late Latin drappus, drapus (“drabcloth, kerchief”), a word first recorded in the Capitularies of Charlemagne, probably from Frankish *drapi, *drāpi (“that which is fulled, drabcloth”, literally “that which is struck or for striking”), from Proto-Germanic *drapiz (“a strike, hit, blow”) and Proto-Germanic *drēpiz (“intended for striking, to be beaten”), both from *drepaną (“to beat, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreb- (“to beat, crush, make or become thick”). Cognate with English drub (“to beat”), North Frisian dreep (“a blow”), Low German drapen, dräpen (“to strike”), German treffen (“to meet”), Swedish dräpa (“to slay”). More at drub.

der

(textiles) The way in which fabric falls or hangs.


gimp

en-verb

gimp (third-person singular simple present gimps, present participle gimping, simple past and past participle gimped)

gimps (present singular third-person)
gimping (participle present)
gimped (participle past)
gimped (past)

Attested since about 1660, perhaps from Dutch gimp or French guimpe, and likely from Old French guimpre, a variant of guipure, a kind of trimming.
The regional sense of "gumption" is attested since about 1905, and may have developed due to the reinforced nature of gimp cord, or possibly the influence of the words gumption and gumph.

It consists of seventy fine spun cotton threads, gimped or tied around with thread by a machine similar to that for wrapping bonnet wire.

1856, Campbell Morfit, A Treatise on Chemistry Applied to the Manufacture of Soap and Candles, page 435 with illustration:

...low strings later than the mid-seventeenth century are commonly gimped (wound with fine wire on a moderate core) to allow sufficient tension without excessive mass or stiffness.

1982, Robert Donington, Music and Its Instruments, page 69:

(sewing, textiles) Of yarn, cord, thread, etc., to wrap or wind (surround) with another length of yarn or wire in a tight spiral, often by means of a gimping machine, creating 'gimped yarn', etc. Also, generally, to wrap or twist with string or wire. See gimped.


sheer

en-adj

sheer (comparative sheerer or more sheer, superlative sheerest or most sheer)

sheerer (comparative)
more sheer (comparative)
sheerest (superlative)
most sheer (superlative)

From Middle English shere, scheere, schere, skere, from Old English sċǣre (“pure, sheer; shining, clear”), from Proto-Germanic *skairiz; supplanted the semantically close shire (dialectal), from Middle English schyre, schire, shire, shir, from Old English sċīr (“clear, bright; brilliant, gleaming, shining, splendid, resplendent; pure”), beside which existed Middle English skyr, from Old Norse skírr (“pure, bright, clear”), both from Proto-Germanic *skīriz (“pure, sheer”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₁y- (“luster, gloss, shadow”).
Cognate with Danish skær, German schier (“sheer”), German Low German schier (“sheer, pure, unadulterated"; "completely, almost”)Dutch schier (“almost”), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌴𐌹𐍂𐍃 (skeirs, “clear, lucid”). Outside Germanic, cognate to Albanian hir (“grace, beauty; goodwill”).

cog

Her light, sheer dress caught everyone’s attention.

“She sheathed her legs in the sheerest of the nylons that her father had brought back from the Continent, and slipped her feet into the toeless, high-heeled shoes of black suède.”

1954, Alexander Alderson, chapter 17, in The Subtle Minotaur:

She was cunningly dressed in a black, sheer gown with gold ornaments showing her figure to perfection.

1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 53:


tabby

en-verb

tabby (third-person singular simple present tabbies, present participle tabbying, simple past and past participle tabbied)

tabbies (present singular third-person)
tabbying (participle present)
tabbied (participle past)
tabbied (past)

Mid 17th century French tabis, from Arabic عَتَّابِيّ (ʕattābiyy), ultimately from Arabic الْعَتَّابِيَّة (al-ʕattābiyya), a quarter of Baghdad (named for a Prince عَتَّاب (ʕattāb)) which is associated with the manufacture of a certain type of waved silk. See also taffeta, another type of silk whose name derives from the Persian تافته (tâfta, “woven cloth”) and shares a similar etymological origin.

uder

الْعَتَّابِيَّة

(transitive) To give a wavy or watered appearance to (a textile).


camouflage

en-noun

camouflage (countable and uncountable, plural camouflages)

/ˈkæ.məˌflɑːʒ/

Unadapted borrowing from French camouflage, from camoufler (“to veil, disguise”), alteration (due to camouflet (“smoke blown in one's face”)) of Italian camuffare (“to muffle the head”), from ca- (from Italian capo (“head”)) + muffare (“to muffle”), from Medieval Latin muffula, muffla (“muff”). This Medieval Latin, from which there is also English muffle, is either derived from a Frankish *molfell (“soft garment made of hide”) from *mol (“softened, forworn”) (akin to Old High German molawēn (“to soften”), Middle High German molwic (“soft”)) + *fell (“hide, skin”), from Proto-Germanic *fellą (“skin, film, fleece”), or, an alternate etymology traces it to a Frankish *muffël (“a muff, wrap, envelope”) composed of *mauwa (“sleeve, wrap”) from Proto-Germanic *mawwō (“sleeve”) + *fell (“skin, hide”) from Proto-Germanic *fellą (“skin, film, fleece”).

der

(textiles) A pattern on clothing consisting of irregularly shaped patches that are either greenish/brownish, brownish/whitish, or bluish/whitish, as used by ground combat forces.


bunch

From Middle English bunche, bonche (“hump, swelling”), of uncertain origin.
Perhaps a variant of *bunge (compare dialectal bung (“heap, grape bunch”)), from Proto-Germanic *bunkō, *bunkô, *bungǭ (“heap, crowd”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰenǵʰ-, *bʰénǵʰus (“thick, dense, fat”). Cognates include Saterland Frisian Bunke (“bone”), West Frisian bonke (“bone, lump, bump”), Dutch bonk (“lump, bone”), Low German Bunk (“bone”), German Bunge (“tuber”), Danish bunke (“heap, pile”), Faroese bunki (“heap, pile”); Hittite [Term?] (/panku/, “total, entire”), Tocharian B pkante (“volume, fatness”), Lithuanian búožė (“knob”), Ancient Greek παχύς (pakhús, “thick”), Kamkata-viri břẽć, břez (“berry tree”), Prasuni vuzra (“berry tree”), Sanskrit बहु (bahú, “thick; much”)).
Alternatively, perhaps from a variant or diminutive of bump (compare hump/hunch, lump/lunch, etc.); or from dialectal Old French bonge (“bundle”) (compare French bongeau, bonjeau, bonjot), from West Flemish bondje, diminutive of West Flemish bond (“bundle”).

cog

(textiles) The reserve yarn on the filling bobbin to allow continuous weaving between the time of indication from the midget feeler until a new bobbin is put in the shuttle.


stash

en-noun

stash (countable and uncountable, plural stashes)

Unknown. Perhaps a blend of stick + cache or stow + cache.

My stash is mostly unfinished objects on the needles. I have one bag of yarn that I bought to make a coat.

2021, Julie Cicora, Contemplative Knitting, page 131:

(countable, textiles) A collection of yarn or other materials not yet allocated to any particular craft project.


plush

plush (countable and uncountable, plural plushes)

From French peluche (“fluff, plush”). The fact that historically (in past centuries) plush upholstery was so expensive as to be socially exclusive undoubtedly connects the senses of "luxurious" and "soft".

Mr. Cooke had had a sloop yacht built at Far Harbor, the completion of which had been delayed, and which was but just delivered. […] The Maria had a cabin, which was finished in hard wood and yellow plush, and accommodations for keeping things cold.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter X, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

That night the Boy slept in a different bedroom, and he had a new bunny to sleep with him. It was a splendid bunny, all white plush with real glass eyes, but the Boy was too excited to care very much about it.

1921 June, Margery Williams, “The Velveteen Rabbit: Or How Toys Become Real”, in Harper’s Bazar, volume LVI, number 6 (2504 overall), New York, N.Y.: International Magazine Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 108, column 4:

A textile fabric with a nap or shag on one side, longer and softer than the nap of velvet.


sloper

(textiles) A custom-fitted basic pattern from which patterns for many different styles can be created.

The wages of slopers, so far as they have been found designated as such on the pay rolls, are given in Table 63.

1914, Nahum Isaac Stone, Royal Meeker, Wages and Regularity of Employment and Standardization of Piece Rates in the Dress and Waist Industry: New York City, page 145:

(textiles, obsolete) An assistant or apprentice cutter.


divan

Borrowed from French, from Ottoman Turkish دیوان (divan), from Iranian Persian دیوان (divân), from Classical Persian دیوان (dēwān), from Middle Persian d(p)ywʾn' (dēwān, “archive, collected writings”), from Sumerian 𒁾 (dub). Compare mattress, from Arabic (both of Middle Eastern origin, due to the local custom of lying on padding on floor being foreign to Europeans). Doublet of dewan, douane, and diwaniya.

der

(now historical) A Muslim council of state, specifically that of viziers of the Ottoman Empire that discussed and recommended new laws and law changes to a higher authority (the sultan).


ottoman

en-noun

ottoman (countable and uncountable, plural ottomans)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-ottoman.wav

From Ottoman in the early 19th century; so named because reclining on a couch was associated with Middle Eastern customs.

(textiles) A fabric with a pronounced ribbed or corded effect, often made of silk or a mixture of cotton and silk-like yarns.


pill

* From Middle English pille (also pillem), a borrowing from Middle Low German pille or Middle Dutch pille (whence Dutch pil), probably from Latin pila, pilula.
* (persuade or convince): Generalized from red pill.

One sleeve, threadbare and loaded with what my mother called “sweater pills,” hung halfway to the floor.

1999, Wally Lamb, I Know This Much Is True:

(textiles) A small piece of any substance, for example a ball of fibers formed on the surface of a textile fabric by rubbing.

毛球

ball of fibres formed on the surface of a textile fabric by rubbing


pill

en-verb

pill (third-person singular simple present pills, present participle pilling, simple past and past participle pilled)

pills (present singular third-person)
pilling (participle present)
pilled (participle past)
pilled (past)

During processing, inferior short fibers (which can cause pilling and itching) are removed to enhance the natural softness of the yarn and to improve its wash-and-wear performance.

1997, Jo Sharp, Knitted Sweater Style: Inspirations in Color:

(intransitive, textiles) Of a woven fabric surface, to form small matted balls of fiber.


ligne

Synonym of line (“ill-defined unit of length”).

(textiles) A unit of length used for measuring the diameter of buttons.


heckle

heckle (third-person singular simple present heckles, present participle heckling, simple past and past participle heckled)

heckles (present singular third-person)
heckling (participle present)
heckled (participle past)
heckled (past)

Transferred usage of Middle English hekelen (“to comb flax or hemp with a heckle”), from hekele (“a comb for flax or hemp”), from Middle Dutch hekelen (“to prickle, irritate”), from Proto-Germanic *hakilōną, related to *hakô (“hook”). Related to hackle.

der

(textiles) To prepare flax for spinning using special combs called hackles.


underhand

Your underhand should be entirely under the quilt.

(textiles) The lower of two hands, the hand under the work.


jaspe

en-noun

jaspe (countable and uncountable, plural jaspes)

(textiles) cotton or rayon cloth with shaded effect


cellular

From New Latin cellulāris, from cellula (“cell”) + -āris.

MULDER: Yeah, Eddie, this is all good stuff. Yeah, see what else you can find on him from the N.C.I.C. and call me back. At, at this number or on my cellular.

1994, "Red Museum", (episode of The X-Files TV series)

(US, informal) A cellular phone (mobile phone).


heather

heather (countable and uncountable, plural heathers)

heathers (plural)
hadder (alternative dialectal)
hether (alternative obsolete)
hather (alternative obsolete)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-heather.wav

From Middle English hather, hathir, from Old English *hǣddre and hǣþ (“heather”), cognate with Scots hedder, hadder, heddir (“heather”), Saterland Frisian Heede (“heather”), West Frisian heide (“heather”), Dutch heide (“heather”), German Low German Heide, Heid (“heather”), German Heide (“heather”).

(textiles) The use of interwoven yarns of mixed colours to produce flecks.


L

L (countable and uncountable, plural Ls)


CB

CB (countable and uncountable, plural CBs)

(textiles, sewing) Initialism of center back, a line marking the center on the back side of a piece of clothing.


dyed-in-the-wool

en-adj

dyed-in-the-wool (comparative more dyed-in-the-wool, superlative most dyed-in-the-wool)

more dyed-in-the-wool (comparative)
most dyed-in-the-wool (superlative)

From the past participle of dye in the wool. The expression comes from the fact that fabric can be dyed in a number of ways. The woven fabric may be dyed after it is complete, or the threads may be dyed before they are woven. When a color is "dyed in the wool," the wool itself is dyed before being spun into threads, so the colour is least likely to fade or change. (Dyes: Webster’s Quotations, Facts and Phrases. Icon Group International. 2008, p. 344.).

[…] some Druggets with Thread, that are dyed in the Piece; the others are dyed in the Wool, i. e. the Wool of which they are made, is dyed of several Colours, before it is carded, spun, and weaved.

1747, John Smith, chapter 156, in Chronicon Rusticum-Commerciale; or, Memoirs of Wool, &c., volume 2, London: T. Osborne, page 431:

That cloth will keep its colour best that is dyed in the wool; and the vessel will longest retain the scent of that liquor with which it is first seasoned.

1810 January, “Redeeming the Time”, in The Evangelical Magazine, volume 18, page 7:

(of textiles) Having the fibres dyed before they are formed into cloth.


gatherer

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-gatherer.wav

From Middle English gaderere, gaderare, equivalent to gather + -er.

(textiles) An attachment to a sewing machine for making gathers in the cloth.


astrakhan

en-noun

astrakhan (countable and uncountable, plural astrakhans)

Named after the city of Astrakhan in Southern Russia.

Closely-curled black or grey fleece of very young karakul lambs from Astrakhan.

Our new acquaintance very deliberately coiled up the tube of his hookah, and produced from behind a curtain a very long befrogged topcoat with Astrakhan collar and cuffs.

1890 February, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Story of the Bald-headed Man”, in The Sign of Four (Standard Library), London: Spencer Blackett […], →OCLC, pages 66–67:

Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat […]

1891 June 25, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Adventure I.—A Scandal in Bohemia.”, in Geo[rge] Newnes, editor, The Strand Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly, volume II, London: George Newnes, Limited, […], published July 1891, →OCLC:

He was dressed in a long green overcoat with mock astrakhan cuffs and collar and wore on his head an oval fur cap.

He was dressed in uniform—a black uniform trimmed with gray astrakhan.

1924, Richard Connell, The Most Dangerous Game:

Was the cavalry officer slim and elegant, and dressed in astrakhan?

1929 September, Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own, uniform edition, London: Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, […], published 1931 (April 1935 printing), →OCLC:

Cloth resembling the above mentioned fur, often made from wool and mohair and used for trimmings.


barry

en-adj

barry (comparative more barry, superlative most barry)

more barry (comparative)
most barry (superlative)

[…] many examples of the degree of coverage of barry nylon with various ranges of dyes are listed […]

1970, The International Dyer, Textile Printer, Bleacher and Finisher, page 802:

(textiles) Of a dyed material: having bars or bands of color.


RFD

RFD (comparative more RFD, superlative most RFD)

more RFD (comparative)
most RFD (superlative)

(textiles) Initialism of ready for dyeing.


spinning wheel

spinning wheels (plural)
spinning-wheel (alternative dated)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-spinning wheel.wav

Dobrunka always began the day by feeding the goats, then she prepared the breakfast, swept the kitchen, and when everything else was done she sat down at her spinning wheel and spun.

1919, Parker Hoysted Fillmore, Czechoslovak fairy tales, page 179:

A domestic device for making yarn or thread; having a single spindle and a wheel driven by hand or foot.

عَجَلَة الْمِغْزَل

device for spinning thread with a wheel and a spindle


regain

From Middle French regaigner (French regagner). By surface analysis, re- + gain.

The number of ends per inch may vary to some slight extent at different places in the width of the cloth and in different pieces woven to the same particulars , but if the regain is correctly estimated , the calculated reed to be used will be the same, unless a special reed has been used in weaving the cloth.

1912, National Association of Cotton Manufacturers, Transactions of the National Association of Cotton Manufacturers, page 105:

In particular, at high humidities the regain of wool is lower.

2008, J. W. S. Hearle, W E Morton, Physical Properties of Textile Fibres, page 190:

Because of the fiber price per pound, and the size of the lots, the regain must be determined accurately.

2017, Sabit Adanur, Wellington Sears Handbook of Industrial Textiles, page 590:

(textiles) The amount of width a woven cloth grows by when the fibers swell, used to determine the width of the reed to use in weaving.


filament

Borrowed from Medieval Latin fīlāmentum, from Late Latin fīlō (“to spin, draw out in a long line”), from Latin fīlum (“thread”).

der

(textiles) A continuous object, limited in length only by its spool, and not cut to length.


rug

Uncertain; probably of North Germanic origin; perhaps inherited via Middle English *rugge (suggested by Middle English ruggy (“hairy, shaggy, bristly”) and rugged (“hairy, shaggy, rugged”)), from Old Norse rǫgg (“shagginess, tuft”), from Proto-Germanic *rawwō (“long wool”), probably related to *rūhaz (“rough”), related to English rag and rough.
Cognate with dialectal Norwegian rugga (“coarse coverlet”), Swedish rugg (“rough entangled hair”), related to English rag and rough. Compare also Old English rȳhe (“rug, rough covering, blanket”).

cog

They then cut down a quantity of gum-tree leaves for a bed, and threw their rugs upon them ready for bed-time.

1855, William Howitt, A Boy′s Adventures in the Wilds of Australia: or, Herbert′s Note-Book, page 254:

Furnish every sleeping apartment with a sufficient number of toilet utensils and bedsteads, and sufficient bedding so that each bed shall be provided with a mattress, two sheets, a rug, and, in winter time, not less than one additional rug.

1906 July 27, Government Gazette of Western Australia, page 2297:

1950 April, Dental Journal of Australia, Volume 22, page 181,
My own son had a bunny rug of which he was very fond and on being put to bed he would always demand his “bunny rug to suck his finger with.″

1958, Arthur Hailey, John Castle. Runway Zero-Eight. Bantham Books
She tucked in a rug round the woman. “How’s that?” The woman nodded gratefully.

He brought with him a rug and a sheet, and lay down by the fire.

1997, Alan Sharpe, Vivien Encel, Murder!: 25 True Australian Crimes, page 22:

(UK, Australia) A (usually thick) piece of fabric used for warmth (especially on a bed); a blanket.

(colloquial) A dense growth of chest hair.


rug

en-verb

rug (third-person singular simple present rugs, present participle rugging, simple past and past participle rugged)

rugs (present singular third-person)
rugging (participle present)
rugged (participle past)
rugged (past)


silesia

en-noun

silesia (countable and uncountable, plural silesias)

"Say I can't dress a window, you thundering old Humbug," he said, and hurled the huckaback at his master. He followed this up by pitching first a blanket, then an armful of silesia, then a window support out of the window into the shop.

1910, H G Wells, The History of Mr Polly, page 27:

Silesian textile made of flax or cotton.


crushed

en-adj

crushed (comparative more crushed, superlative most crushed)

more crushed (comparative)
most crushed (superlative)

Her top was of black crushed velvet.

(not comparable, textiles) Of a fabric, having the appearance of having been crushed.


nankeen

en-noun

nankeen (countable and uncountable, plural nankeens)

Eye spelling of Nanking, itself a romanization of Chinese 南京 (Nánjīng, literally “Southern capital”).

der

1885, L. and A. Maude (translators), Leo Tolstoy, "What Men Live By", in What Men Live By and Other Tales
He put on over his shirt his wife's wadded nankeen jacket, and over that he put his own cloth coat.

c. 1910-1920, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Thomas Seltzer (translator), A Christmas Tree and a Wedding
She was a poor widow, and her little boy, clad in a sorry-looking little nankeen jacket, looked thoroughly crushed and intimidated.

A type of cotton cloth originally from Nanking in China.

nankeen night heron

also nankeen bird, nankeen crane, nankeen heron


PFD

(textiles) Initialism of prepared for dyeing.


duvetyne

en-noun

duvetyne (countable and uncountable, plural duvetynes)

duvetynes (plural)
duvetine (alternative)
duvetyn (alternative)

Borrowed from French duvetine, from duvet, from Middle French *dumet, diminutive of Old French dun, dum, ultimately from Old Norse dūnn.

A heavy black cloth used in the motion picture and film industry to block out unwanted light.


marabou

marabous (plural)
marabu (alternative)
marabout (alternative)

From French marabou, an older spelling of marabout.

(textiles) A kind of thrown raw silk, naturally nearly white, but capable of being dyed without scouring.


ripple

ripples (plural)
reeple (alternative)
riple (alternative)

Compare German Low German Repel, Dutch repel, German Riffel, extended forms (with instrumental or diminutive -le) of Low German Repe (“ripple”), Dutch repe (“ripple”). Compare also Dutch repen, German reffen, Swedish repa (“to beat; ripple”).
The verb is from Middle English ripplen, rypelen. Compare Low German repelen, Dutch repelen, German riffeln.

(textiles) An implement, with teeth like those of a comb, for removing the seeds and seed vessels from flax, broom corn, etc.

гребен

implement for removing the seeds from flax


greige

The adjective is borrowed from French grège and Middle French grège (“of silk: raw, unfinished; of the colour of such silk, greyish-beige”, adjective), from Italian greggio (“raw, unrefined; unbleached”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Vulgar Latin *gregius (as in lana *gregia (“untreated wool as obtained from the flock”)), from grex (“flock (of sheep, etc.)”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ger- (“flock, herd; to gather”).
The noun is borrowed from French grège and Middle French grège (“raw or unfinished silk; the colour of such silk, greyish-beige”, noun), from Italian greggio: see above.
The spelling of the word is probably influenced by beige, likely because it was thought to be a blend of grey and beige.

bor

The rolls of greige cloth sat on the factory floor waiting to be printed.

(textiles) Of clothing, textiles, etc.: neither bleached nor dyed, nor otherwise fully processed; unfinished.

raaka

of clothing, textiles, etc.: neither bleached nor dyed, nor otherwise fully processed — see also unfinished


greige

en-noun

greige (countable and uncountable, plural greiges)

greiges (plural)
grege (alternative)
grège (alternative)

(textiles, archaic) Clothing, textiles, etc., which have neither been bleached nor dyed, nor otherwise fully processed; greige goods.


whole cloth

whole cloth (countable and uncountable, plural whole cloths)

(textiles) A newly made textile which has not yet been cut.


threadbare

en-adj

threadbare (comparative more threadbare, superlative most threadbare)

more threadbare (comparative)
most threadbare (superlative)

/ˈθɹɛdˌbɛ(ə)ɹ/

PIE word
 *bʰosós
From Middle English thred-bar, thred-bare (“of cloth, clothing, etc.: worn to such an extent that the warp and weft threads show, shabby, worn-out; (figurative) inadequate, poor”) [and other forms], from thred (“piece of textile twine”) (from Old English þrǣd (“thread”), from Proto-Germanic *þrēduz (“thread; twisted fibre”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to drill, pierce; to rub; to turn, twist”)) + bar, bare (“naked, unclothed, bare; not covered”) (from Old English bær (“naked, bare; unconcealed”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *bazaz (“naked, bare”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰosós (“bare; barefoot”)). The English word is analysable as thread + bare.

inh

His life vvas nigh vnto deaths dore yplaſte, / And thred-bare cote, and cobled ſhoes hee vvare, […]

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 28, page 53:

VVill any Freedom here from you be born, / VVhoſe Cloaths are thred-bare, and vvhoſe Cloaks are torn?

1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, W. Bowles, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Fifth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC, page 80:

We are told, that an ancient tragic poet, to move the pity of his audience for his exiled kings and distressed heroes, used to make the actors represent them in dresses and clothes that were thread-bare and decayed.

1712 January 4 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “MONDAY, December 24, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 42; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 282:

No one stops to question the coin of a rich man; but a poor devil cannot pass off either a joke or a guinea, without its being examined on both sides. Wit and coin are always doubted with a threadbare coat.

1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “The Club of Queer Fellows”, in Tales of a Traveller, part 1 (Strange Stories. […]), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea, […], →OCLC, page 26:

Ah! You may look through that shirt till your eyes ache; but you won't find a hole in it, nor a thread-bare place. It's the best he had, and a fine one too.

1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Four. The Last of the Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 135:

The shabbiness of these attendants upon shabbiness, the poverty of these insolvent waiters upon insolvency, was a sight to see. Such threadbare coats and trousers, such fusty gowns and shawls, such squashed hats and bonnets, such boots and shoes, such umbrellas and walking-sticks, never were seen in Rag Fair.

1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, “Little Mother”, in Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC, book the first (Poverty), page 66:

Unkempt, in threadbare clothes, with holed shoes and sun-cured hide, my costume is permanent: the traveler, the man from far away.

2014 December, Paul Salopek, “Blessed. Cursed. Claimed. On Foot through the Holy Lands”, in National Geographic, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2015-02-12:

Of cloth, clothing, furnishings, etc.: frayed and worn to an extent that the nap is damaged and the warp and weft threads show; shabby, worn-out.

sürtük

of cloth, etc.: frayed and worn to an extent that the nap is damaged and the warp and weft threads show — see also shabby, worn-out


selvage

en-noun

selvage (countable and uncountable, plural selvages)

selvages (plural)
selvedge (alternative)

From early modern Dutch selfegghe (Modern Dutch zelfkant (“selvage”)), equivalent to self + edge.

ива

finished edge of a woven fabric parallel with warp

(weaving) The edge of a woven fabric, where the weft (side-to-side) threads run around the warp (top to bottom) threads, creating a finished edge.


pilled

en-adjective

pilled (comparative more pilled, superlative most pilled)

more pilled (comparative)
most pilled (superlative)

(textiles) Of woven fabric: having formed small matted balls of fiber.


doormat

Wipe your shoes on the doormat before you start plodding around in the house.

Mr. Simpson adds that the station at Stanmore appears practically unchanged from the time of its opening, even to the L.N.W.R. rubber doormat, which "shows no signs of wearing out."

1942 September and October, “Notes and News: The Stanmore Branch”, in Railway Magazine, page 311:

Dimple glanced at an expensive-looking doormat with the words ‘LOSE THE SHOES’ woven into it and wondered why anyone would bother spending so much money on something people were going to wipe their feet on.

2022, Candice Carty-Williams, People Person, Trapeze, pages 257–258:

A coarse mat at the entrance to a house, upon which one wipes one's shoes.

дыванок

coarse mat that appears at the entrance to a house

полови́к

для вытира́ния о́буви

He's such a doormat, he lets everyone walk all over him.

If you flipped through certain magazines at this time you could be forgiven for thinking that there was no right way to be a woman, only wrong ones — bimbo or frump, slut or prude, shrew or doormat.

2022 March 31, Alexis Soloski, “Why the Sudden Urge to Reconsider Famous Women?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(figuratively, derogatory) Someone who is overly submissive to others' wishes.

觀音兵 /观音兵

someone that is over-submissive to other's wishes


repeater

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-repeater.wav

(textiles) In calico printing, a design repeated at equal intervals in a pattern.


calico

en-noun

calico (countable and uncountable, plural calicos or calicoes)

calicos (plural)
calicoes (plural)
callico (alternative archaic)

From Calicut, from where the cloth was originally exported, from Malayalam കോഴിക്കോട് (kōḻikkōṭŭ, “Kozhikode”), from കോഴി (kōḻi, “palace”) + കോട് (kōṭŭ, “fortified palace”).

af

This helix was covered with calico, and then a second wire applied in the same manner.

1832, Michael Faraday, “Experimental Researches in Electricity”, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, volume 122, →DOI, →JSTOR, page 126:

Trussed in corsets, jawbone-high collars and calicos that had seen better days, they have little enough to work with, their attempts at coquetry further constrained by their rigid mores of the day.

2017 June 30, Ruth La Ferla, “In ‘The Beguiled,’ Pretty Confections Whipped Up to Seduce”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(textiles) A kind of rough cloth made from unbleached and not fully processed cotton, often printed with a bright pattern.


stabilizer

tlb

(American spelling, Oxford British English)

stabilizers (plural)
stabiliser (alternative)

Any person or thing that brings stability.

(textiles) A piece of backing fabric used in embroidery.


percale

en-noun

percale (countable and uncountable, plural percales)

From French percale, of uncertain origin; probably compare percaulah.

In her percale bed. In her heaven of piled pillows.

1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 403:

(textiles) A fine, closely woven fabric, made from cotton, polyester or a mix of these, and used for sheets and clothing.


crock

en-verb

crock (third-person singular simple present crocks, present participle crocking, simple past and past participle crocked)

crocks (present singular third-person)
crocking (participle present)
crocked (participle past)
crocked (past)

From Middle English crok, crokke (“earthenware jar, pot, or other container; cauldron; belly, stomach”) [and other forms], from Old English crocc, crocca (“crock, pot, vessel”) [and other forms], from Proto-Germanic *krukkō, *krukkô (“vessel”), from Proto-Indo-European *growg- (“vessel”).
The English word is cognate with Danish and Norwegian krukke (“jar”), Dutch kruik (“jar, jug”), regional German Kruke (“crock”), Icelandic krukka (“pot, jar”), Old English crōg, crōh (“crock, pitcher, vessel”). See also cruse.

thus producing a permanent, definite color thereon which will not fade or crock, and at the same time using up all of the coloring matter.

1917, John H. Pfingsten, "Colouring-matter for leather and method of using the same" http://www.google.com/patents?id=G3xVAAAAEBAJ, US Patent 1371572, page 1

Colored fabrics should be dried separately for the first few times to prevent crocking (rubbing off of dye).

1964, Isabel Barnum Wingate, Know Your Merchandise, page 109:

In leather garments, lining also prevents crocking of color onto skin or garments worn underneath.

2002, Sandy Scrivano, Sewing With Leather & Suede, →ISBN, page 95:

(textiles, leatherworking) To transfer coloring through abrasion from one item to another.


serge

en-noun

serge (countable and uncountable, plural serges)

From Middle English sarge, from Old French sarge, serge, from Vulgar Latin *sarica, from Latin sērica (“silken, silk things”), from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós, “silken”), from σήρ (sḗr, “silkworm”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic”), possibly from Old Chinese 絲 (*sə, “silk”). Doublet of silk and seric.

der

Lucy, who had only seen her in either the large loose wrapping dress of serge, or in the quaint simplicity of the Puritanic garb, then so general in England, could not restrain an exclamation of admiration as she returned to their chamber.

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 110:

What I noticed most strongly was his smell, of hair oil and serge and cigarette smoke, and something else, something intimate and sour and wholly, shockingly other.


dimity

en-noun

dimity (countable and uncountable, plural dimities)

From earlier dimite, from Middle English demit, demyt, from Medieval Latin dimitum, from Byzantine Greek δίμιτον (dímiton), from Ancient Greek δίμιτος (dímitos, “of double thread”).

der

Strain the ſoup through a piece of dimity into a clean ſaucepan, and let it ſtew till it is of the thickneſs of cream.

1717, T. Williams, The Accomplished Housekeeper, and Universal Cook, page 134:

The first of these tweels, in respect to the number of leaves, is the dimity cord, which is merely the three leafed tweel turned, a plan of which is subjoined, both for cording and treading.

1831, John Murphy, A Treatise on the Art of Weaving, Glasgow, page 42:

The drapery should always be perfectly white, of dimity, twilled muslin, or other neat strong material.

1840, "A Lady", The Workwoman's Guide, page 42:

2009 Fall, Rabbit Goody, Jill Mancy, Interiors: Bug Bars & Slipcovers, Early Homes, page 20,
Period slipcovers were typically made of linen and cotton, in woven checks or striped dimities.

(dated in general use, now textiles) A light strong fabric with woven stripes or squares.


cotillion

cotillions (plural)
cotillon (alternative)

/kəʊtɪlˈjɒ̃/

Circa 1750, in the sense of the dance, from French cotillon (“petticoat”), extended to the dance because of the distinctive lift of dress revealing the petticoat, from cotte (“dress”) + -illon (diminutive). Said to derive from the then-popular song Ma commère, quand je danse, mon cotillion va-t-il bien.

(textiles) A kind of woollen material for women's skirts.


jacquard

en-noun

jacquard (countable and uncountable, plural jacquards)

Eponym, from Joseph Marie Jacquard, inventor of the Jacquard loom.

The White House has jacquard drapes in the East Room.

Fabric resembling a jacquard, but woven by a different process.


worsted

worsted (countable and uncountable, plural worsteds)

Inherited from Middle English worstede, worsted, from Worstede (now Worstead; Old English *Wurϸestede), a town in Norfolk, England.

An old set-stitched chair, valanced and fringed around with party-coloured worsted bobs, stood at the bed’s head opposite to the side where my father’s head reclined.

1761, Laurence Sterne, chapter 29, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume III:

[…] the kitten had been having a grand game of romps with the ball of worsted Alice had been trying to wind up, and had been rolling it up and down till it had all come undone again […]

1871, Lewis Carroll, chapter 1, in Through the Looking-Glass:

"Yes, young people are usually blind to everything but their own wishes, and seldom imagine how much those wishes cost others," said Mrs Garth. She did not mean to go beyond this salutary general doctrine, and threw her indignation into a needless unwinding of her worsted, knitting her brow at it with a grand air.

1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter LVII, in Middlemarch […], volume III, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book VI, page 266:

Finally he took a ball of worsted and tied strings of it across the back passage and across the opposite door.

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

(textiles) Yarn made from long strands of wool.


scatter rug

A small rug, especially one of several used as a floor covering.


mandylion

mandylion (countable and uncountable, plural mandylions)

mandylions (plural)
mandilion (alternative)
Mandylion (alternative)

From Byzantine Greek μανδύλιον (mandúlion), μανδίλιον (mandílion), μαντίλιον (mantílion), or μανδήλη (mandḗlē, “cloth, hand towel, handkerchief, tablecloth”) (the last word dating to the 5th century), especially in the term τὸ ἄγιον μανδήλιον (tò ágion mandḗlion, “the holy towel”); from Latin mantēlium, a variation of mantēle or mantēlum (“hand towel, napkin”) (probably misconstructed as a singular form from the plural mantēlia); probably from manus (“hand”) + tergō (“to rub, wipe, wipe off, clean, cleanse”). Probably cognate with Umbrian mantrahklu.

The tradition of the sacred image is related to established prototypes […] handed down in Christian art, the most important [of which] is the acheiropoietos ("not made by human hands") image of the Christ on the Mandilion. It is said that the Christ gave His image, imprinted on a piece of fabric, to the messengers of the King of Edessa, Abgar, who had asked Him for His portrait. The Mandilion had been preserved at Constantinople until it disappeared when the town was pillaged by the Latin Crusaders. A copy of the Mandilion is preserved in the cathedral of Laon.

1967, Titus Burckhardt; Lord Northbourne (Walter Earnest Christopher James), transl., Sacred Art in East and West: Its Principles and Methods, London: Perennial Books, OCLC 896652107; republished Louisville, Ky.: Fons Vitae, 2001, ISBN 978-1-887752-41-1, pages 88–89

According to a sixth-century legend, King Abgar Ukamâ of Edessa fell ill. Hearing about a healer named Jesus, he sent for the holy man and promised to become his follower. Christ learned of this and praised Abgar for having faith without visual evidence. Unable to travel to Edessa, Christ sent a likeness of himself produced miraculously on a cloth or mandylion (from Arabic mandil, "veil," and Latin mantele, "towel" or "napkin"). Abgar was cured, and the mandylion remained in Edessa until 544, when its magic turned back the invading Persians from the gates of the now-Christian city.

1993, Joseph Leo Koerner, “Not Made by Human Hands”, in The Moment of Self-portraiture in German Renaissance Art, Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 81:

These legends not only established the value of the Mandylion and the Vera Icon as authentic portraits of Christ, but also as acheiropoieta, i.e., images made without the intervention of human hands.

1995, Maurits Smeyers, “An Eyckian Vera Icon in a Bruges Book of Hours, ca. 1450 (New York, Pierpoint Morgan Library, Ms 421)”, in Werner Verbeke et al., editors, Serta Devota in Memoriam Guillelmi Lourdaux. Pars Posterior: Cultura Mediaevalis (Mediaevalia Lovaniensia; Series I, Studia XXI), part II, Leuven: Leuven University Press, →OCLC, page 199:

In St. Barbara in Khé, a thirteenth-century Georgian church, the Mandylion is painted on the wall behind the altar, […]

1999, Sharon E. J. Gerstel, Beholding the Sacred Mysteries: Programs of the Byzantine Sanctuary (Monographs on the Fine Arts; 56), Seattle, Wash.: College Art Association in association with the University of Washington Press, →ISBN, page 75:

We know the history of the transfer of the mandilion of Edessa to Constantinople from the text ascribed to Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (913/944–959).

2007, Acta Poloniae Historica, Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, →OCLC, page 37:

The mandylion became not just a holy relic but an image to be copied, either as textile or as iconographic type on a hard surface: a painted icon of a mandylion with Christ's face on it. Furthermore it became a theological prototype. Just as the mandylion bore the impression of the incarnate God on its surface and became a vessel of divine healing, so all icons bear witness to the power of matter to reveal divinity and of revealed divinity to effect eternal salvation.

2009, Artemis Leontis, Culture and Customs of Greece, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, →ISBN, page 42:

The special nature of Orthodox icons was emphasized by the growth of a notion, much encouraged by these bitter disputes, that there was one quite exceptional class of art: acheiropoieta, images of Jesus not made by human hands, the archetype of which was the now-mysterious Mandylion given by Christ himself to King Abgar of Edessa […].

2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, London: Allen Lane, ISBN 978-0-7139-9869-6; republished London: Penguin Books, 2010, ISBN 978-0-141-02189-8, page 452

(chiefly Eastern Orthodoxy) often Mandylion: the Image of Edessa, a holy relic consisting of a piece of cloth upon which an image of the face of Jesus Christ had been miraculously imprinted without human intervention (that is, an acheiropoieton); an artistic depiction of this relic.

Edessa
Image of Edessa
Saint Catherine's Monastery
Saint Catherine, Egypt
encaustic painting

veronica

image of Jesus's face believed to have been made on the cloth with which Saint Veronica wiped his face as he went to be crucified


stroking

/ˈstɹəʊ̯k.ɪŋ/

/ˈstɹəʊ̯k.ɪŋ/

(textiles) The act of laying small gathers in cloth in regular order.


foulé

foulé (countable and uncountable, plural foulés)


burlap

burlap (countable and uncountable, plural burlaps)

Uncertain. Attested since about 1695 in the spelling bore-lap, borelapp. Likely from burel (“a coarse woollen cloth”) + lap (“flap of a garment”), where the first element is from Middle English burel, borel. Others feel that "its character and time of appearance makes a Dutch origin very likely" (and the earliest references as to its importation from the Netherlands); the NED suggests derivation from Dutch boenlap (“coarse, rubbing linen or cloth”) with the first element perhaps confused with boer (“farmer, peasant”). Bense similarly suggests derivation from an unattested Dutch *boerenlap, where boeren would be used in the sense of “coarse” as in boerenkost (“coarse, heavy food as is eaten by farmers”) or boerenpraat (“coarse, rural speech”).

der

“A ranger responded and found two whole chickens in a burlap sack in a hot spring,” she said. A cooking pot was also found nearby.

2020 November 11, Johnny Diaz, Concepción de León, “3 Visitors Banned From Yellowstone After Cooking Chickens in Hot Spring”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(US) A very strong, coarse cloth, made from jute, flax, or hemp, and used to make sacks, etc.


herringbone

en-noun

herringbone (countable and uncountable, plural herringbones)

herringbones (plural)
herring-bone (alternative)

/ˈhɛɹɪŋˌboʊn/

For some strange and elusive reason, the staid, prosaic herringbones have angled themselves into a position of fashion prominence.

(textiles) Twilled fabric woven in rows of parallel sloping lines.


mola

The classic mola is pure applique and is distinguished by alternating bands of color.

1977, Rhoda L. Auld, Molas: What they are, How to make them, Ideas they suggest for creative appliqué, page 67:

Molas originally served, and still serve, as blouse front and backs.

1979, Kax Wilson, A History of Textiles, Westview Press, →ISBN, page 339:

A traditional textile art form of the Kuna people of Panama and Colombia, consisting of cloth panels to be worn on clothing, featuring complex designs made with multiple layers of cloth in a reverse appliqué technique.


seersucker

seersucker (countable and uncountable, plural seersuckers)

→ French: seersucker

→ German: Seersucker

/ˈsɪɹˌsʌk.ɚ/

/ˈsɪəˌsʌk.ə/

From Hindi शीरशक्कर (śīrśakkar), from Persian شیر و شکر (šir o šekar, literally “milk and sugar”), modified by folk etymology, originally alluding to the smooth (“milk”) and rough (“sugar”) surface of the stripes.

der

I saw merely a lank, commonplace, and simple-looking farmer, going about his chores in faded blue overalls, a seersucker shirt, and a straw hat of the kind that is called a "cow's breakfast."

1919, Harvey J. O'Higgins, “Benjamin McNeil Murdock”, in From the Life:

(textiles) A thin, all-cotton fabric, commonly striped, used to make clothing for summer wear.


bath mat

bath mats (plural)
bathmat (alternative)

A small mat used next to a bathtub to absorb water and thus prevent slipping.


greige goods

/ɡɹeɪʒ ˈɡʊdz/

/ɡɹeɪʒ ˈɡʊdz/

From greige (“of clothing, textiles, etc.: neither bleached nor dyed, nor otherwise fully processed”) + goods.

compound

(textiles) Clothing, textiles, etc., which have neither been bleached nor dyed, nor otherwise fully processed.

raakakankaat

clothing, textiles, etc., which have neither been bleached nor dyed, nor otherwise fully processed


galatea

After Galatea, a British man-of-war, since the material was used for children's sailor suits.

(textiles) A strong cotton fabric with diagonal twill weave.


pinstripe

pinstripes (plural)
pin stripe (alternative)
pin-stripe (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-pinstripe.wav

Deep blue fuselage-length pinstripes begin at the belly and get gradually narrower as they approach the windowline, each trimmed either side in red.

1985, Nigel Milton Tomkins, World Airline Colours, volume 1, page 37:

A very thin stripe on a fabric or other surface.


plying

(textiles) An arrangement of strands or plies.


shisha

en-noun

shisha (countable and uncountable, plural shishas)

shishas (plural)
sheesha (alternative)
shishah (alternative)

Borrowed from Egyptian Arabic شيشة (šīša), from Ottoman Turkish شیشه şişe, from Classical Persian شیشه (šīša, “glass, mirror”).

der

(textiles) A type of embroidery with small pieces of reflective metal attached to the fabric.


reps

Borrowed from French reps, ultimately from English ribs.


swingle

The noun is from Middle English swingel, from Old English swingel, swingelle (“whip, scourge”), equivalent to swing + -le. Related to Middle Dutch swingel, swengel, Dutch zwingel, zwengel. Doublet of swingel.
The verb is from Middle English swingelen, from the noun. Related to Middle Dutch swingelen, swengelen.

(textiles) An implement used to separate the fibres of flax by beating them; a scutch.


leno

From French linon (“lawn (linen fabric)”), from lin (“linen; flax”) + -on.

(textiles) A type of weave used to make light, open cotton fabric used for window curtains.


gored

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

god (non-rhotic, horse–hoarse merger, cot–caught merger)

a four-gored skirt


goring

(textiles) A piece of cloth cut diagonally to increase its apparent width.


couching

From Middle English couchynge; equivalent to couch + -ing.

(textiles) Embroidering by laying the materials upon the surface of the foundation, instead of drawing them through.


thrummed

thrummed mittens

(textiles) Made with thrums (leftover warp thread) woven into the fabric.


perching

From perch (“a rack over which cloth is suspended for inspection”).

(textiles) Inspection of cloth before finishing.


regenerated

en-adj

regenerated (comparative more regenerated, superlative most regenerated)

more regenerated (comparative)
most regenerated (superlative)

/ɹiːˈd͡ʒɛnəɹeɪtɪd/

(chemistry, textiles) Reprecipitated after chemical treatment, especially in the form of fibres; pertaining to fibres prepared in this way.


georgette

en-noun

georgette (countable and uncountable, plural georgettes)

From French georgette, named after Georgette de la Plante, French dressmaker.

She looked away from the stage at an enormously stout lady promenading in a black and salmon georgette dress.

1928, Jean Rhys, Quartet, Penguin, published 2000, page 68:

Martha began sarcastically to explain why it was that even if she had been twelve she could not have worn this pink frilled georgette to the Van Rensbergs' house, since nice little English girls were not for export.

1952, Doris Lessing, Martha Quest, Panther, published 1974, page 73:

Silk chiffon and silk georgette. Two thin, thin materials that cannot be confused with each other.

2004, Monika Fagerholm, Translator Kathleen Tucker, The American Girl, Other Press, published 2009, page 62:

A thin lightweight silk or cotton fabric with a matte finish.


bengaline

bengaline (countable and uncountable, plural bengalines)

/ˈbɛŋɡəliːn/

From French bengaline, from its resemblance to a kind of fabric imported from Bengal.

Ruperta tonight was in a narrow black bengaline costume with a Medici collar and cuffs of bastard chinchilla.

2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 415:

A fabric made from silk and worsted; poplin.


saddlecloth

A blanket placed under a saddle, a saddle blanket.

çul

blanket placed under a saddle — see also saddle blanket


peau de soie

/pəʊdəˈswɑː/

From French peau de soie (“skin of silk”), perhaps originally a trademark.

She was in pale violet peau de soie, and a hat so beguiling that Kit was only momentarily surprised to find himself with an erection.

2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 611:

A heavy closely-woven silk fabric, faced with satin on both sides.


shifter

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-shifter.wav

(engineering, textiles) A wire for changing a loop from one needle to another, as in narrowing, etc.


monofilament

In the twentieth century, the gill net became almost invisible when hemp twine was replaced first by nylon and then by monofilament. Since monofilament is fairly indestructible, it is estimated that a modern "ghost net" may continue to fish on its own for as long as five years.

(textiles) A single strand of man-made fiber


breathability

breathability (countable and uncountable, plural breathabilities)

From breathable + -ity or breathe + -ability.

If you’re looking for the most breathable mask, Lukovics says, “Cotton is preferable, mainly for absorbing moisture/sweat.” She says multiple layers may be more protective but will also impact breathability.

2021 August 17, Elizabeth Wallace and Kai Burkhardt, “12 breathable face masks to protect you while exercising”, in CNN:

To find the best rain jacket, we tested everything from waterproofness and breathability to fit, feel and packability.

2025 January 3, Kai Burkhardt, “The best rain jackets of 2025, tried and tested”, in CNN:

The ability of a fabric (or clothing) to transmit air and moisture.

透氣性 /透气性

ability of fabric to transmit air and moisture


CF

CF (countable and uncountable, plural CFs)

(textiles, sewing) Initialism of center front, a line on a pattern marking the center on the front side of a piece of clothing.


piqué

piqué (countable and uncountable, plural piqués)

Borrowed from French piqué (“(noun) ribbed fabric; (ballet) step on to the point of the leading foot without bending the knee; (adjective) backstitched; (cooking) larded”), Middle French piqué (“quilted”), a noun use of the past participle of piquer (“to prick, sting; to decorate with stitches; to quilt; to stitch (fabric) together; to lard (meat)”).

bor

I found three piqué shirts, each a shade lighter than the one before it, and each so fine and closely woven it shone like satin.

1998, Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet, Virago (2018), page 269:

(sewing) A kind of corded or ribbed fabric made from cotton, rayon, or silk.


percher

From perch (“a device over which cloth is suspended for inspection”).

(textiles) An inspector of cloth before finishing.


repp

en-noun

repp (countable and uncountable, plural repps)


diamond twill

diamond twill (countable and uncountable, plural diamond twills)

An even-sided twill, in which the weave produces a diamond (rhomboid) pattern.


rouleau

rouleau turner

rouleau loop

(textiles) A decorative technique that involves creating patterns with piping, cording or bias tape. A rouleau loop uses the same cord or piping as a way of fastening buttons, most notably down the back of bridal gowns.


camo

camo (countable and uncountable, plural camos)

(textiles) A pattern on clothing consisting of irregularly shaped patches that are either greenish/brownish, brownish/whitish, or bluish/whitish, as used by ground combat forces.


carding machine

carding machine (plural carding machines)

(textile manufacturing) A machine used for carding fibres.


feather wool

A type of knitting yarn or cotton that is supposed to resemble wool.


preboard

en-verb

preboard (third-person singular simple present preboards, present participle preboarding, simple past and past participle preboarded)

preboards (present singular third-person)
preboarding (participle present)
preboarded (participle past)
preboarded (past)
pre-board (alternative)

(transitive, textiles) To set the shape of (a garment, especially a stocking) by heating on a form or board before dyeing.


godet

From Middle French godet, from Dutch kodde (“piece of cylindrical wood”).

der

1991, Textile Asia, Volume 22, Issues 1-6, page 54,
Primary air entanglement is applied to give the yarn better cohesion and thus achieve a smoother, quieter thread path over the godets.
After the yarn guiding block a heated godet with idler roll acts as a spinning godet and thus defines spinning […] .

In contrast to conventional spinning, wind-up in high speed spinning is often carried out without godets, as shown earlier in Fig. 4.2(a). The absence of godets reduces capital costs and makes thread string-up simpler.

1997, V. B. Gupta, V. K. Kothari, editors, Manufactured Fibre Technology, page 80:

Drawing is accomplished between godets 3 and 4 by the different speeds of the two godet groups.

2004, Bhuvenesh C. Goswami, Rajesh D. Anandjiwala, David Hall, Textile Sizing, page 259:

(textiles) A roller for guiding synthetic filaments during drawing.


predraft

en-verb

predraft (third-person singular simple present predrafts, present participle predrafting, simple past and past participle predrafted)

predrafts (present singular third-person)
predrafting (participle present)
predrafted (participle past)
predrafted (past)
pre-draft (alternative)

Most cotton is sold as top, requiring only predrafting prior to spinning.

2014, W. J. Johnson, Yarn Works: How to Spin, Dye, and Knit Your Own Yarn, page 32:

(textiles) To pull fibers slightly out of the top or roving prior to spinning.


water repellent

en-noun

water repellent (plural water repellents)

(textiles, chemistry) A chemical used to make fabric water-repellent.


heathered

(textiles) Having flecks produced by interwoven yarns of mixed colours.


crossband

(textiles, of a twist) Left-handed or "S shaped", with individual fibers oriented down and to the right when the thread, yarn, or rope is vertical.


HBT

HBT (countable and uncountable, plural HBTs)

(textiles) Initialism of herringbone twill.


chiné

(textiles) Mottled in appearance, from the warp being dyed in different colours, or from threads of different colours twisted together.


on the bias

(textiles) Describing the method of cutting fabric diagonally across the grain (so as to make the clothing cling to the body)

al biaix

describing the method of cutting fabric diagonally


tussore

tussore (countable and uncountable, plural tussores)

now and then the fantastic shadows of birds of flight flitted across the long tussore-silk curtains that were stretched in front of the huge window, producing a kind of momentary Japanese effect […]

1890, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Vintage, published 2007, page 5:

The next day, when Hsi-men Ch’ing returned from the yamen, he had the chests opened up and took out a bolt of block printed tussore fabric from the Imperial Silk Manufactory in the south.

2001, David Tod Roy, transl., The Plum in the Golden Vase, or Chin P'ing Mei, Volume Two: The Rivals, Princeton University Press, pages 657–8:


spooler

In a method for guiding a thread onto an empty reel after a first reel in a continuously operating spooler has become full, utilizing a moving finger on the spooler in cooperation with a gripper rotating with the empty reel […]

1998, Official Gazette of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, page 1061:

(textiles) A device for winding thread onto a spool.


handblocked

Another choice is handblocked cotton curtains from Urban Outfitters, which come in sassy, bohemian motifs and range in price from $14.99 to $36 a panel.

2007 October 11, Mitchell Owens, “Room to Improve”, in New York Times:

(textiles) Having been blocked (shaped) by hand.


handscreened

Chateau 66 is a handscreened print on a handpainted background from Nama Rococo, a wallpaper design studio in the Berkshires.

2007 October 11, Marianne Rohrlich, “Grandma’s Wallpaper Gets Funky”, in New York Times:


fat quarter

The piece is made by folding a metre-square piece of fabric into quarters and cutting along the folds; it is fat in comparison with a quarter of a metre off the roll, which would be a long thin piece only 25 centimetres wide.

(textiles) A square piece of fabric measuring 50 centimetres along each side.


plain-woven

(textiles) Woven with the most basic textile weave, called plain weave.


samite

samite (countable and uncountable, plural samites)

From Old French samit, from Medieval Latin samitum, examitum, from Byzantine Greek ἑξάμιτον (hexámiton), from ἕξ (héx, “six”) + μίτος (mítos, “thread”).

[A] robe / Of samite without price, that more exprest / Than hid her, clung about her lissome limbs, / In colour like the satin-shining palm / On sallows in the windy gleams of March: [...]

1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Vivien”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 104–105:

And in the center of that lake there hath for some time been seen the appearance as of a women's arm--exceedingly beautiful and clad in white samite, and the hand of this arm holdeth a sword of such exceeding excellence and beauty that no eye hath ever beheld like.

1903, Howard Pyle, The Story of King Arthur and His Knights:

A material of rich silk, sometimes with gold threads, especially prized during the Middle Ages.


kincob

kincob (countable and uncountable, plural kincobs)

kincobs (plural)
kimkhab (alternative)
kinkhab (alternative)
kinkob (alternative)

India silk brocaded with flowers in silver or gold.


filatory

/ˈfɪləˌtɔɹi/

From Latin filatorium (“place for spinning”), from filare (“to spin”), from filum (“a thread”).

It [a silk manufactory] has 3 filatories, each of 640 reels, which are set in motion by a water-wheel; and besides a small filatory, turned by men.

1799, William Tooke, A View of the Russian Empire during the Reign of Catharine II and to the close of the present Century:

(obsolete) A machine for forming threads.


toilinette

toilinette (countable and uncountable, plural toilinettes)

A cloth formerly used for waistcoats, having a weft of woollen yarn and a warp of cotton and silk.


muslinet

muslinet (countable and uncountable, plural muslinets)

A sort of coarse or light cotton muslin.


tobine

Compare German tobin, Dutch tabijn. See tabby.

(historical) A stout twilled silk, formerly used for dresses.


bleachery

A place, building or an establishment where bleaching of textiles is done.


mulmul

mulmul (countable and uncountable, plural mulmuls)

mulmuls (plural)
malmal (alternative)
mulmull (alternative)

His Anarkalis (yes, again), are made from 50 to 60 metres of crinkled mulmul in fascinating colours with finishing as luxurious inside as it is outside.

2012, Shefalee Vasudev, The Powder Room:

She had worn a soft, sheer malmal sari to sleep in for the night. It clung to her body, enticing his eyes.

2015, Tridip Suhrud, translating Govardhanram Madhavram Tripathi, Sarasvatichandra I, Orient BlackSwan 2015, p. 329


hernani

hernani (countable and uncountable, plural hernanis)

Hernani, silk and cotton […] Hernani, entirely of silk

1837, Joseph Blunt, The Shipmaster's Assistant and Commercial Digest, page 661:

A novelty this season is the wide mesh hernani in all colors; […]

1870, Godey's Lady's Book, volumes 80-81, page 493:

I wanted, you understand, to get an entire new waist and a trimmed skirt out of the two old hernani skirts, and discard the old waist altogether; […]

1881, Arthur's Home Magazine, volume 49, page 482:

A thin silk or woollen material for women's dresses.


organzine

organzine (countable and uncountable, plural organzines)

From French organsin; compare Spanish organsino, Italian organzino.

(archaic) A kind of double thrown silk of very fine texture; silk twisted like a rope with different strands, so as to increase its strength.


drabbet

drabbet (countable and uncountable, plural drabbets)

drabbets (plural)
drabette (alternative)

(obsolete, UK) A coarse linen fabric, originally made from hemp.


gambroon

gambroon (countable and uncountable, plural gambroons)

A kind of twilled linen cloth for lining.


hoddengray

Perhaps related to English hoiden (“rustic, clownish”) and gray.

coat/suit of hoddengray

(Scotland, archaic) A coarse cloth made of undyed wool, formerly worn by Scottish peasants.


cannelé

cannelé (countable and uncountable, plural cannelés)

(textiles, uncountable) A style of interweaving giving a channelled or fluted effect to fabric.

(textiles, countable) A fabric woven so as to have this effect; a rep.


iron man

A self-acting spinning mule used in cotton manufacture.


cheeser

From Middle English cheser; equivalent to cheese + -er. The smile is said to resemble the uniform white coloration of cheese, or possibly related to the phrase say cheese.

After the twisting is completed the finished yarn is wound on small spools, known as cheesers, to be weighed.

1920, Pacific Ports - Volume 3, page 64:

By means of a special automatic cheeser, a sufficient number of balls — say, 64 — are built up to fill a creel, from which they are run into the next machine.

1921, The Wool Year Book - Volume 14, page 275:

Spinners and winders, coners and cheesers

1970, The British Textile Industry, page 7:

(textiles) A small spool that is used in the finishing stage of yarn-making.


lazy daisy

(textiles) A kind of chain stitch that can be used to form flower designs.


mediumweight

(chiefly textiles) Of a middling weight, between lightweight and heavyweight.


undercollar

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-undercollar.wav

(textiles) Part of a garment that goes under the collar.


flatlock

(textiles) A style of stitching that creates a seam where the seam allowance lies flat to the garment instead of hanging loose from it.


gamgee

From Gamgee Tissue, a surgical dressing containing cotton wool, invented by Dr. Joseph Sampson Gamgee in Birmingham, England, in 1880.


underspun

en-adj

underspun (comparative more underspun, superlative most underspun)

more underspun (comparative)
most underspun (superlative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-underspun.wav