Lutestring Loot String Noun Glossy Silk Fabric Lute String

lutestring /LOOT-string/

noun

A glossy silk fabric.

[This fabric has nothing to do with a lute string. The word is a corruption of French lustrine, from Italian lustrino, from Latin lustrare (to make bright). Ultimately from the Indo-European root leuk- (light), which also gave us lunar, lunatic, light, lightning, lucid, illuminate, illustrate, translucent, lux, lynx, pellucid, lucubrate, limn, levin, and lea. Earliest documented use: 1661.]

“Her modish Pomona green lutestring gown, which she’d thought so becoming earlier, now seemed a less than ideal choice.” - Heather Cullman; A Perfect Scoundrel; Signet; 2000.