Linsey-woolsey (less often, woolsey-linsey or in Scots, wincey) is a coarse twill or plain-woven fabric woven with a linen warp and a woollen weft. Similar fabrics woven with a cotton warp and woollen weft in Colonial America were also called linsey-woolsey or wincey.[1][2] The name derives from a combination of lin (an archaic word for flax, whence "linen") and wool. This textile has been known since ancient times. Known as shatnez (שַׁעַטְנֵז) in Hebrew, the wearing of this fabric was forbidden in the Torah and hence Jewish law.[3]
- ^ American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, cited at FreeDictionary.com, retrieved 22 June 2007, and Random House Dictionary, via [1] retrieved 25 June 2007
- ^ Baumgarten, Linda: What Clothes Reveal: The Language of Clothing in Colonial and Federal America, Yale University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-300-09580-5, page 96
- ^ "A garment of a Shaatnez mixture shall not come upon you" (Leviticus 19:19); "Do not wear Shaatnez — wool and linen together" (Deuteronomy 22:11).