Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
linsey-woolsey [lin-zee-woo l-zee] ExamplesWord Origin noun, plural lin·sey-wool·seys.
- a coarse fabric woven from linen warp, or sometimes cotton, and coarse wool filling.
- a garment made from this.
- Archaic. any mixture that is incongruous or of poor quality; jumble: That last speech was a linsey-woolsey of stale platitudes.
Origin of linsey-woolsey 1425–75; late Middle English lynsy wolsye literally, linen cloth, wool cloth, equivalent to lyn (Old English līn; see linen) + -sy, variant of say cloth (Old French saie; akin to Medieval Latin sagia kind of weave, Latin sagum cloak) + wol wool + -sye, variant of say Also called linsey. Examples from the Web for linsey-woolsey Historical Examples of linsey-woolsey
The literature of China is, happily, not all linsey-woolsey.
Timothy Harley
She was dressed in linsey-woolsey, and the overalls of the three sons were also home-spun.
Joseph Everidge Kelleam
Your labor is too skilled by far to manufacture bagging and linsey-woolsey.
American Eloquence, Volume IV. (of 4)
Various
Four yards of linsey-woolsey, a yard in width, made a dress for any woman.
Ward H. Lamon
The coats of the men were home-made; the materials, jeans or linsey-woolsey.
Ward H. Lamon
British Dictionary definitions for linsey-woolsey linsey-woolsey noun
- a thin rough fabric of linen warp and coarse wool or cotton filling
- a strange nonsensical mixture or confusion
Word Origin for linsey-woolsey C15: probably from Lindsey, Suffolk village where the fabric was first made + wool (with rhyming suffix -sey) Word Origin and History for linsey-woolsey n.
late 15c., originally a cloth woven from linen and wool; the words altered for the sake of a jingling sound. Linsey is attested from mid-15c., apparently meaning “coarse linen fabric.” Some sources suggest a connection or influence from the place name Lindsey in Suffolk.