muslin

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a prototype of a sewing project, generally made of muslin or other cheap plain fabric

   Before starting a difficult pattern, I always make a muslin.

2. 2
   noun

   Any of several varieties of thin cotton cloth.

   […] my pupils leave off their thick shoes and tight old tartan pelisses, and wear silk stockings and muslin frocks, as fashionable baronets' daughters should.

3. 3
   noun

   Fabric made of cotton, flax (linen), hemp, or silk, finely or coarsely woven.

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

4. 4
   noun

   Woman as sex object; prostitute, as in a bit of muslin.

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

Simplified etymology

Muslin takes its name from Mosul in Iraq, a city associated with the cloth. The word entered English in the early 17th century.

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.

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