- a stout fabric of cotton and flax.
- a fabric of stout twilled cotton or of cotton and low-quality wool, with a short nap or pile.
- inflated or turgid language in writing or speaking: Fustian can't disguise the author's meager plot.
- made of fustian: a fustian coat; fustian bed linen.
- pompous or bombastic, as language: fustian melodrama.
- worthless; cheap: fustian knaves and dupes.
Origin of fustian
SynonymsSee more synonyms on Thesaurus.com
Examples from the Web for fustian
It was simple; it was direct; there was no fustian in it; and yet it told the story perfectly.The Stacks: H.L. Mencken on the 1904 Baltimore Fire
October 4, 2014
"Fustian jacket or not, he had a good head on his shoulders," remarked one.A Day's Ride
Charles James Lever
Think of that, you in fustian jackets who grumble after meat.White Lies
But there also seems to be association with Naples; cf. fustian-anapes for Naples fustian.The Romance of Words (4th ed.)
It was dark in the shop, and the smell of fustian absorbed the air.Moor Fires
E. H. (Emily Hilda) Young
For I heartily despised all that fustian trumpery of the age.Richard Carvel, Complete
- a hard-wearing fabric of cotton mixed with flax or wool with a slight nap
- (as modifier)a fustian jacket
- pompous or pretentious talk or writing
- cheap; worthless
- pompous; bombastic
Word Origin and History for fustian
"thick cotton cloth," c.1200, from Old French fustaigne, from Medieval Latin fustaneum, probably from Latin fustis "staff, stick of wood," probably a loan-translation of Greek xylina lina "linens of wood" (i.e. "cotton"), but the Medieval Latin word also is sometimes said to be from Fostat, town near Cairo where this cloth was manufactured. [Klein finds this derivation untenable.] Figurative sense of "pompous, inflated language" recorded by 1590s.