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fustian

 - 4 dictionary results

fus⋅tian

  [fuhs-chuhn]
Use fustian in a Sentence
–noun
1. a stout fabric of cotton and flax.
2. a fabric of stout twilled cotton or of cotton and low-quality wool, with a short nap or pile.
3. inflated or turgid language in writing or speaking: Fustian can't disguise the author's meager plot.
–adjective
4. made of fustian: a fustian coat; fustian bed linen.
5. pompous or bombastic, as language: fustian melodrama.
6. worthless; cheap: fustian knaves and dupes.
Origin:
1150–1200; ME < OF fustaigne < ML fūstāneum, perh. a deriv. of L fūstis stick, cudgel (LL: trunk; cf. fusty ), if a trans. of L xylinus, Gk (Septuagint) xýlina lína cotton, lit., linen from wood; Fostat, a suburb of Cairo, has also been proposed as the source of fūstāneum

Synonyms:
3. bombast, rant, claptrap.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To fustian
fus·tian   (fŭs'chən)   
n.  

    1. A coarse sturdy cloth made of cotton and flax.

    2. Any of several thick twilled cotton fabrics, such as corduroy, having a short nap.

  2. Pretentious speech or writing; pompous language.

adj.  

  1. Made of or as if of fustian: "[He] disliked the heavy, fustian ... and brocaded decor of Soviet officialdom" (Frederick Forsyth).

  2. Pompous, bombastic, and ranting: "Yossarian was unmoved by the fustian charade of the burial ceremony" (Joseph Heller).


[Middle English, from Old French fustaigne, from Medieval Latin fūstānum, fūstiānum, possibly from Latin fūstis, wooden stick, club (translation of Greek xulinos, wood-linen, cotton) or from El Fostat (El Fustat), a section of Cairo, Egypt.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

fustian 
"thick cotton cloth," c.1200, from O.Fr. fustaigne, from M.L. fustaneum, probably from L. fustis "staff, stick of wood," probably a loan-translation of Gk. xylina lina "linens of wood" (i.e. "cotton"), but the M.L. word is also derived from Fostat, town near Cairo where this cloth was manufactured. Figurative sense of "pompous, inflated language" first recorded c.1590.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Encyclopedia

fustian

fabric originally made by weaving two sets of cotton wefts, or fillings, on a linen warp, popular during the European Middle Ages. The word has come to denote a class of heavy cotton fabrics, some of which have pile surfaces, including moleskin, velveteen, and corduroy.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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