muslin

See also: müslin and muślin

English

A woman wearing a muslin dress

Alternative forms

muselin

Etymology

From French mousseline, from Italian mussolina, from Mussolo (“Mosul”), that is Mosul in northern Iraq (compare 1875 Knight, Edward H., Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary, V2 p1502: "Muslins are so called from Moussol in India.").

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈmʌz.lɪn/
Audio (US) (file)

Noun

muslin (usually uncountable, plural muslins)

(textile) Any of several varieties of thin cotton cloth.
- 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 11, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, OCLC 3174108:
  […] my pupils leave off their thick shoes and tight old tartan pelisses, and wear silk stockings and muslin frocks, as fashionable baronets' daughters should.
- 1875, Edward H. Knight, Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary, Vol.2 p.1502:
  A bleached or unbleached thin white cotton cloth, unprinted and undyed. [Nineteen varieties are thereafter listed.]
- 1906, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, chapter I, in Chippinge Borough, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., OCLC 580270828, page 01:
  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.
(US) Fabric made of cotton, flax (linen), hemp, or silk, finely or coarsely woven.
- 1875, Edward H. Knight, Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary, Vol.2 pp.1502−3:
  Other very different styles of fabric are now indifferently called muslins, and the term is used differently on the respective sides of the Atlantic.
Any of a wide variety of tightly-woven thin fabrics, especially those used for bedlinen.
(US) Woven cotton or linen fabrics, especially when used for items other than garments.
(countable) A dressmaker's pattern made from inexpensive cloth for fitting.
Any of several different moths, especially the muslin moth, Diaphora mendica.
Woman as sex object; prostitute, as in a bit of muslin.
- 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 51, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, OCLC 2057953:
  "That was a pretty bit of muslin hanging on your arm—who was she?” asked the fascinating student.

Derived terms

butter muslin
See muslin in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911

Translations

thin cotton cloth

Arabic: مَوْصِلِيّ‎ (mawṣiliyy)
Egyptian Arabic: شاش‎ m (šāš)
Bulgarian: муселин m (muselin)
Czech: mušelín (cs) m
Dutch: mousseline (nl)
Esperanto: muslino
Finnish: musliini (fi)
French: mousseline (fr)
Georgian: ნანსუკი (nansuḳi)
Greek: μουσελίνα (el) f (mouselína)
Irish: muislín m
Italian: mussola f
Japanese: モスリン, 毛斯綸 (mosurin), モス (mosu), メリンス (merinsu), 唐縮緬 (とうちりめん, tōchirimen)
Norman: mousselinne f
Ottoman Turkish: دلبند‎ (dülbend)
Polish: muślin (pl)
Portuguese: musselina (pt) f
Romanian: muselină (ro) f, muselin (ro) n, muslin (ro) n
Russian: мусли́н (ru) m (muslín)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: муслин
Roman: muslin (sh)
Spanish: muselina (es) f
Tagalog: muselina

very different styles of fabric — see fabric

thin fabric used for bedlinen

Arabic: مَوْصِلِيّ‎ (mawṣiliyy)
Bulgarian: хасе n (hase)
Finnish: lakanakangas

dressmaker's pattern

Arabic: مَوْصِلِيّ‎ (mawṣiliyy)
Finnish: sovitusmalli

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Arabic: ^{(please verify)} شاش‎ (ar) (šāš) (šāš)
French: ^{(please verify)} mousseline (fr)

moth

Finnish: hukkasiilikäs (Diaphora mendica)

References

muslin at OneLook Dictionary Search
muslin in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911

Anagrams

Sumlin, ulmins, unslim

Romanian

Noun

muslin n (plural muslinuri)

Alternative form of muselină

Declension

Declension of muslin

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) muslin	muslinul	(niște) muslinuri	muslinurile
genitive/dative	(unui) muslin	muslinului	(unor) muslinuri	muslinurilor
vocative	muslinule		muslinurilor