Textile

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈtɛks.taɪl/

Definitions

1. A woven or knitted fabric made from fibers such as cotton, wool, silk, or synthetic materials used in clothing and household items
2. A type of material created by interlacing fibers, typically utilized in apparel and home furnishings, and may include natural or synthetic sources
3. A material formed by weaving or knitting fibers together, often employed in the manufacture of garments and various domestic products

Etymology: The word started life as an adjective in Latin. "Textilis" meant "woven," and it came from the verb "texere," to weave, which also gave English "text." Latin speakers turned the adjective into a noun, "textile," meaning a woven cloth, so the word began as a description of how something was made rather than of the cloth itself. The root connection is the surprising part. A text was once literally a woven thing: the same image of interlacing threads underlies both the fabric on a loom and the words on a page. Writers and weavers shared a metaphor long before either word took its modern sense.

Synonyms: fabric, material, cloth, textile fabric