fustian
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈfʌs.tɪ.ən/
ipa: /ˈfʌs.tʃən/
ipa: /ˈfʌs.t͡ʃən/
Forms: form: fustians
Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English fustian (“type of fabric, probably made from cotton, flax, or wool; piece of fustian spread over a bed or mattress”) [and other forms], from Old French fustaine, fustaigne (modern French futaine), from Medieval Latin fūstāneum, from (pannus) fūstāneus or (tela) fūstānea, of disputed origin.
Sense 3 (“inflated, pompous, or pretentious speech or writing”) is possibly from the fact that the fabric was sometimes used to make cushion- and pillowcases, thus suggesting that the speech or writing is “padded” or “stuffed”; compare bombast. The relationship between sense 4 (“hot drink made of a mixture of alcoholic beverages with egg yolk, lemon, and spices”) and the fabric is unclear.
The adjective is from an attributive use of the noun.
Cognates
* Italian fustagno
* Occitan fustani
* Portuguese fustão
* Spanish fustan
Senses: examples: text: VVWhere's the Cooke, is ſupper ready, the houſe trim'd, ruſhes ſtrevv'd, cobvvebs ſvvept, the ſeruingmen in their nevv fuſtian, their vvhite ſtockings, and euery officer his vvedding garment on?
ref: c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 221, column 1:
text: Fustian, of which I found only one entry before 1401, occurs frequently in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It appears to have been a ribbed cloth. […] On one occasion (1443) it is described as 'white ribbed fustian.'
ref: 1882, James E[dwin] Thorold Rogers, “On the Price of Textile Fabrics and Clothing”, in A History of Agriculture and Prices in England […], volumes IV (1401–1582), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 568:
text: His clothes were of fustian, and his boots hobnailed, yet in his progress he showed not the mud-accustomed bearing of hobnailed and fustained peasantry.
ref: 1883 March, Thomas Hardy, “The Three Strangers”, in Wessex Tales: Strange, Lively, and Commonplace […], volume I, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1888, →OCLC, pages 12–13:
text: The different names given to fustian cloths depend upon their degree of fineness, and the manner in which they are woven and finished. […] In all fustians there is a warp and filling, or weft thread, independent of the additional filling-thread forming the pile; but in corduroys the pile thread is only 'thrown in' where the corded portions are and is absent in the narrow spaces between.
ref: 1903, “FUSTIAN”, in Daniel Coit Gilman, Harry Thurston Peck, Frank Moore Colby, editors, The New International Encyclopædia, volume VIII, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, →OCLC, page 30, column 2:
text: The East India company was pursuing its own financial interests, but in doing so was also fostering the establishment of industries such as calico printing — an industry that would have not achieved the same degree of accomplishment if it had confined itself simply to the printing of European fustians (mixed cottons) and linens, both of which were more difficult to print on than cotton.
ref: 2009, Giorgio Riello, “The Indian Apprenticeship: The Trade of Indian Textiles and the Making of European Cottons”, in Giorgio Riello, Tirthankar Roy, editors, How India Clothed the World: The World of South Asian Textiles, 1500-1850 (Global Economic History Series; 4), Leiden; Boston, Mass.: Brill, →ISBN, →ISSN, part III (Regions of Change: Indian Textiles and European Development), page 334:
glosses: Originally, a kind of coarse fabric made from cotton and flax; now, a kind of coarse twilled cotton, or cotton and linen, stuff with a short pile and often dyed a dull colour, which is chiefly prepared for menswear.
examples: text: Fustian is a species of coarse twilled cotton, but may be considered as a general term which comprehends several varieties of cotton fabrics, as corduroy, jean, velveret, velveteen, thickset, thickset cord, and other stout cloths for men's wearing apparel; from their strength and cheapness, they are very serviceable to agricultural people. It is generally dyed of an olive, leaden, or other colours. […] Fustians are either plain or twilled.
ref: 1855, T[homas] Webster, Mrs. [William] Parkes, “Book XVII. On the Various Textile Fabrics for Clothing and Furniture.”, in D[avid] M[eredith] Reese, editor, An Encyclopædia of Domestic Economy: […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, chapter IV (Cotton Fabrics for Dress and Furniture), section VIII (Description of the Various Cotton Fabrics), paragraph 5665, page 962:
text: Fustian originally referred to a large variety of textiles of linen-and-cotton blend; later it came to mean all-cotton textiles. Common varieties of the fancy fustians are corduroy, jean, pillow, thickset, velveret and velveteen.
ref: 1986 fall (June), Richard Henning Field, “Lunenberg-German Household Textiles: The Evidence from Lunenburg County Estate Inventories, 1780–1830”, in Material History Bulletin = Bulletin d’histoire de la Culture Matérielle, volume 24, Hull, Que.: Canadian Museum of Civilization; Ottawa, Ont.: National Museum of Science and Technology, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 07 Apr 2022, page 18, column 2:
text: Fustians, a large group of general-purpose fabrics were mainly woven with a tight heavy texture. Sometimes they were plainly woven, but fustians could also be fashioned with “tufts” creating fabric like corduroy or velveteen. Fustians were used for anything from draperies to dresses or upholstery to men’s waistcoats.
ref: 2007, Susan M. Ouellette, “Flax from the Field, Cotton from the Sea”, in US Textile Production in Historical Perspective: A Case Study from Massachusetts (Studies in American Popular History and Culture), New York, N.Y.; Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, →ISBN, pages 34–35:
text: In the nineteenth century fustian cutting was a major occupation right across the North West and thousands of people in the cotton towns were employed at it. Sometimes the work was done at tables but more often than not the cloth was stretched across rollers and they'd walk up and down all day, slicing through the threads of the weave row by row, using tiny blades fashioned from watch springs and honed until they were as sharp as razorblades. Cutting even a basic fustian, they could walk ten or eleven miles over the length of a shift. With more sophisticated fustians – fabrics like velveteen, for instance – you had to walk further, much further.
ref: 2008, Steve Haywood, chapter 9, in Narrowboat Dreams: A Journey North by England’s Waterways, Chichester, West Sussex: Summersdale Publishers, →ISBN, page 103:
glosses: A class of fabric including corduroy and velveteen.
examples: text: Wag[ner]. Vilaine, call me Maiſter Wagner, and let thy left eye be diametarily fixt vpon my right heele, with quaſi veſtigias nostras inſistere [as if to follow in our footsteps]. / Clo[wn]: God forgiue me, he ſpeakes Dutch fuſtian: / well, Ile folow him, Ile ſerue him, thats flat.
ref: 1589–1592 (date written), Ch[ristopher] Marl[owe], The Tragicall History of D. Faustus. […], London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Thomas Bushell, published 1604, →OCLC, signature [B4], recto:
text: Monſieur Orenge, yond' Gallants obſerues vs; pr'y thee let's talke Fuſtian a little and gull 'hem: make 'hem beleeue vve are great Schollers.
ref: 1599 (first performance), B. I. [i.e., Ben Jonson], The Comicall Satyre of Euery Man out of His Humor. […], London: […] [Adam Islip] for William Holme, […], published 1600, →OCLC, Act III, scene i, signature [H iiij], verso:
text: If hee can havvke & hunt, ride a horſe, play at cards and dice, ſvvagger, drinke, ſvveare, take Tobacco vvith a grace, ſing, dance, vveare his cloathes in faſhion, court and pleaſe his miſtris, talke bigge fuſtian, inſult, ſcorne, contemne others and vſe a litle mimicall and apiſh complement aboue the reſt, he is a compleat, (Egregiam verò laudem) a vvell-qualified Gentleman, theſe are moſt of their imployments, this their greateſt cõmendation.
ref: 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Deformity of Body. Sicknesse. Basenesse of Birth, Peculiar Discontents.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 2, section 3, member 2, page 260:
text: I am much deceiv'd if this be not abominable fuſtian, that is, thoughts and vvords ill ſorted, and vvithout the leaſt relation to each other: […]
ref: 1681, John Dryden, “The Epistle Dedicatory to the Right Honourable John, Lord Haughton”, in The Spanish Fryar: Or, the Double Discovery. […], London: […] Richard Tonson and Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
text: Nothing that belongs to Homer ſeems to have been more commonly miſtaken than the juſt Pitch of his Style: Some of his Tranſlators having ſvvell'd into Fuſtian in a proud Confidence of the Sublime; others ſunk into Flatneſs in a cold and timorous Notion of Simplicity.
ref: 1715, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Preface”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC:
text: Claudian in the deſcription of his infant Titan deſcants on this glory about his head, but has run his deſcription into moſt wretched fustian.
ref: a. 1720 (date written), Joseph Addison, “Dialogues upon the Usefulness of Ancient Medals. […]. Dialogue II.”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume I, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], published 1721, →OCLC, page 490:
text: And he, vvhoſe Fuſtian’s ſo ſublimely bad, / It is not Poetry, but Proſe run mad: […]
ref: 1735 January 13 (Gregorian calendar; indicated as 1734), [Alexander] Pope, An Epistle from Mr. Pope, to Dr. Arbuthnot, London: […] J[ohn] Wright for Lawton Gilliver […], →OCLC, page 10, lines 182–183:
text: Every preparative of pomp, attitude, and lofty language were called in to make him [John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute] worthy of himself. His admirers were in ecstasies; the few that dared to sneer at his theatric fustian, did not find it quite so ridiculous as they wished.
ref: a. 1798 (date written), Horace Walpole, chapter IX, in Denis Le Marchant, editor, Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Third. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley […], published 1845, →OCLC, page 131:
text: Sensible Englishmen, like Endymion and Trenchard, looked upon the whole exhibition as fustian, and received the revelations with a smile of frigid courtesy.
ref: 1880, [Benjamin Disraeli], chapter XXIII, in Endymion […], volume III, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 230:
text: What made [Édouard] Manet a veritable prophet in his day, was that he brought a simple formula to a period in which the official art was merely fustian and conventionality.
ref: 1923, Ambroise Vollard, “Cézanne Aspires to the Salon of Bouguereau (1866–1895)”, in Harold L. Van Doren, transl., Paul Cézanne: His Life and Art […], New York, N.Y.: Nicholas L. Brown, →OCLC, page 49:
text: Anything grandiose or historically based tends to sound flat and banal when it reaches English, partly because translators get stuck between contradictory imperatives: juggling fidelity to the original sense with what is vocally viable, they tend to resort to a genteel fustian which lacks either poetic resonance or demotic realism, adding to a sense of artificiality rather than enhancing credibility.
ref: 2014 March 1, Rupert Christiansen, “English translations rarely sing”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review), London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, page R19:
synonyms: word: aureation
word: bombard phrase
word: grandiloquence
word: magniloquence
word: purple prose
glosses: Inflated, pompous, or pretentious speech or writing; bombast; also (archaic), incoherent or unintelligible speech or writing; gibberish, nonsense.
examples: text: RUMFUSTIAN. The yolks of twelve eggs, one quart of strong beer, one bottle of white wine, half a pint of gin, a grated nutmeg, the juice from the peeling of a lemon, a small quantity of cinnamon, and sufficient sugar to sweeten it;[…]
ref: [1827, [Richard Cook], “RUMFUSTIAN”, in Oxford Night Caps. Being a Collection of Receipts for Making Various Beverages Used in the University, Oxford, Oxfordshire; London: […] Henry Slatter; and Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, […], →OCLC, page 24:
text: Rum Fustian is a "night-cap" made precisely in the same way as the preceding [egg-posset or egg-flip], with the yolks of twelve eggs, a quart of strong home-brewed beer, a bottle of white wine, half-a-pint of gin, a grated nutmeg, the juice from the peel of a lemon, a small quantity of cinnamon, and sugar sufficient to sweeten it.
ref: 1832, William Hone, “January 9”, in The Year Book of Daily Recreation and Information, […], London: […] [J. Haddon] for Thomas Tegg, […], →OCLC, column 62:
text: Rum fustian [i]s prepared at Oxford as follows: whisk up to a froth the yolks of six eggs and add them to a pint of gin and a quart of strong beer; boil up a bottle of sherry in a sauce-pan, with a stick of cinnamon or nutmeg grated, a dozen large lumps of sugar, and the rind of a lemon peeled very thin; when the wine boils, it is poured upon the beer and gin and drank hot.
ref: 1853, [Robert F. Riddell], “Drinks, Liqueurs, etc.”, in Indian Domestic Economy and Receipt Book; […], 4th edition, Madras: […] D. P. L. C. Connor, at the Christian Knowledge Society’s Press, […], →OCLC, page 350:
qualifier: alcoholic beverages
glosses: Chiefly in rum fustian: a hot drink made of a mixture of alcoholic beverages (as beer, gin, and sherry or white wine) with egg yolk, lemon, and spices.
Synonyms: word: aureation
word: bombard phrase
word: bombast
word: fustian
word: grandiloquence
word: highfalutin
word: magniloquence
word: purple prose
Hypernyms: word: talk
word: writing
Hyponyms: sense: class of fabric
word: beaverteen
word: purple patch
Derived terms: fustianed
fustianism
fustianist
fustianize
Related terms: word: nonsense