zylon

zylon

English

Alternative forms

• Zylon

Etymology

Trademarked name.

Noun

zylon (uncountable)

1. A synthetic polymer material, a range of thermoset liquid-crystalline polyoxazole developed in the 1980s.
   • 1999, Tom Clancy and Martin Greenberg, Shadow Watch, New York: Berkley Books, Chapter 20, p. 314,

     They wore Zylon soft body armor and load-bearing vests accessorized with baton and knife holders […]

2. An earlier synthetic material.
   • 1955, Harry Binsse (translator), The Cashier by Gabrielle Roy, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, Chapter 1, p. 9,

     Like many imaginative men, Alexandre felt that he was not made for the century in which he lived, this epoch of appalling tedium all too little relieved by gadgets, by nickel, aluminum, plastic, celluloid, Bakelite, nylon, zylon.

   • 1969, Philip Roth, Portnoy’s Complaint, New York: Vintage, 1994, “The Jewish Blues,” p. 41,

     I scream, extracting from my closet the zylon jacket I wear only with my collar up (a style she abhors as much as the filthy garment itself).