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 mock-up of a garment pattern made of inexpensive fabric for the purpose of optimizing its fit on the wearer, before the garment is produced in more expensive fabric.

   Fitting this pattern is tricky, so we recommend you make a muslin first.

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
• muslined
• muslin-kale
• muslinlike
• muslinoma
• 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 (ja), 毛斯綸 (mosurin), モス (ja) (mosu), メリンス (ja) (merinsu), 唐縮緬 (とうちりめん, tōchirimen)
• Norman: mousselinne f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: musselin m or n

• 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

  Latin: muslin (sh)

• Spanish: muselina (es) f
• Tagalog: muselina
• Turkish:

  Ottoman Turkish: دلبند (dülbend)

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.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “muslin”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Sumlin, ulmins, unslim

Romanian

Noun

muslin n (plural muslinuri)

1. alternative form of muselină

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	muslin	muslinul	muslinuri	muslinurile
genitive-dative	muslin	muslinului	muslinuri	muslinurilor
vocative	muslinule		muslinurilor