Fustian
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fustian is a term for a variety of heavy woven, mostly cotton fabrics, chiefly prepared for menswear.
It embraces plain twilled cloth called jean, and cut fabrics similar to velvet, known as velveteen, moleskin, corduroy etc. The original medieval fustian was a stout but respectable cloth with a cotton weft and a linen warp, derived from El-Fustat, a suburb of Cairo, where it was first made, although manufacture soon spread to Europe.[1] The term seems to have quickly become less precise, and was applied to a coarse cloth made of wool and flax or wool and linen, and in the reign of Edward III of England, the name was given to a woollen fabric. By the early 20th century, fustians were usually of cotton dyed various colors.
In a petition to parliament during the reign of Mary I "fustian of Naples" is mentioned. In the 13th and 14th centuries priests' robes and women's dresses were made of fustian, but though dresses are still made from some kinds, the chief use is for labourers' clothes.
[edit] Political signficance
Fustian was worn by workers during the 19th century. As such, radical elements of the British working class chose to wear fustian jackets as a symbol of their class allegiance. This was especially marked during the Chartist era. The historian Paul Pickering has called the wearing of fustian "a statement of class without words."[2]
Fustian is also used to refer to pompous, inflated or pretentious writing or speech, from at least the time of Shakespeare. For this shift of meaning, compare bombast.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Donald King in: Jonathan Alexander & Paul Binski (eds), Age of Chivalry, Art in Plantagenet England, 1200-1400, p.157, Royal Academy/Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London 1987
- ^ See Paul A. Pickering, "Class Without Words: Symbolic Communication in the Chartist Movement"
[edit] References
- The Online Etymology Dictionary
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- Pickering, Paul, A., "Class Without Words: Symbolic Communication in the Chartist Movement", Past and Present, cxii, August 1986, 144-162.
