Lint

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /lɪnt/

Definitions

1. A thin layer of loose fibers that can accumulate on clothing surfaces
2. Tiny fragments of textile fibers that gather on the surface of materials ; a mass of soft threads and fibers that collects on clothing or fabrics over time
3. Minute fibers detaching and sticking to the surface of garments or cloth ; a buildup of loosely attached fluff commonly found on worn textiles

Etymology: Lint has two unrelated histories, and the more surprising one is the newer. In 1979, a Unix utility that checks C programs for suspicious code was named "lint" because it picks out the small, pointless defects that clutter a program, much as fluff collects on cloth. The name was a joke on that undesirable fiber, the bits of fuzz found in sheep's wool. The older sense is far more ordinary. It came into Middle English as "lynet" or "linet," borrowed from Old French "linette," meaning "grain of flax," a diminutive of "lin," flax. Flax is the plant whose fibers are spun into linen, so the word's core idea is the fine fiber shed from that fabric. The Old French form may itself trace back to Medieval Latin "linteum," a linen cloth, from Latin "līnum," flax.

Synonyms: fluff, fuzz, fibers