Flannels

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of soft, warm fabric often used for shirts or pajamas
2. Garments made from this fabric, typically characterized by a checkered or solid pattern
3. A fabric commonly associated with comfort and used for casual clothing in cooler weather

Etymology: Flannels is the plural of "flannel," and the singular has a surprisingly long chain behind it. It began as a diminutive of Old French "flaine" or "floene," meaning coarse wool, and that word came from Gaulish, the Celtic language of pre-Roman Gaul. Its ultimate root, Proto-Celtic "*wlānos," meant wool, and it is related to Welsh "gwlân" and Breton "gloan." So the cloth is named, in effect, for wool itself, with a little diminutive ending added in Anglo-Norman "flanelle." The word reached Middle English as "flaunneol," and the cloth it named was a soft, loosely woven fabric, a sense the plural keeps today. Because a plain woollen cloth like this could be used for many things, the word later came to name garments and bedding made from it as well.

Synonyms: cotton cloth, fabric