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."). Doublet of mousseline.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmʌz.lɪn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

muslin (usually uncountable, plural muslins)

1. (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:

     […] 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, volume 2, page 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, 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.

2. (US) Fabric made of cotton, flax (linen), hemp, or silk, finely or coarsely woven.
   • 1875, Edward H. Knight, Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary, volume 2, pages 1502–1503:

     Other very different styles of fabric are now indifferently called muslins, and the term is used differently on the respective sides of the Atlantic.

3. Any of a wide variety of tightly-woven thin fabrics, especially those used for bedlinen.
4. (US) Woven cotton or linen fabrics, especially when used for items other than garments.
5. (countable) A dressmaker's pattern made from inexpensive cloth for fitting.
6. Any of several different moths, especially the muslin moth, Diaphora mendica.
7. 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:

     "That was a pretty bit of muslin hanging on your arm—who was she?” asked the fascinating student.

Derived terms

• bit of muslin
• book muslin
• buke muslin
• butter-muslin
• butter muslin
• muslin-kale
• paper muslin

 

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)
• German: Musselin (de) m
• Greek: μουσελίνα (el) f (mouselína)
• Hindi: मलमल (hi) m (malmal)
• 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”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “muslin”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Sumlin, ulmins, unslim

Romanian

Noun

muslin n (plural muslinuri)

1. Alternative form of muselină

Declension

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