FUSTIAN

fustian, a term which includes a variety of heavy woven cotton fabrics, chiefly prepared for men's wear. it embraces plain twilled cloth called jean, and cut fabrics similar to velvet, known as velveteen, moleskin, corduroy, &c. the term was once applied to a coarse cloth made of cotton and flax; now, fustians are usually of cotton and dyed various colours. in the reign of edward iii. the name was given to a woollen fabric. the name is said to be derived from el-fustat, a suburb of cairo, where it was first made; and certainly a kind of cloth has long been known under that name. in a petition to parliament, _temp._ philip and mary, "fustian of naples" is mentioned. in the 13th and 14th centuries priests' robes and women's dresses were made of fustian, but though dresses are still made from some kinds the chief use is for labourers' clothes. fustic (fr. _fustoc_, from arab. _fustuq_, gr. [greek: pistake], pistachio) yellow wood or old fustic, a dye-stuff consisting of the wood of _chlorophora tinctoria_, a large tree of the natural order moraceae, growing in the west indies and tropical america. fustic occurs in commerce in blocks, which are brown without, and of a brownish-yellow within. it is sometimes employed for inlaid work. the dye-stuff termed young fustic or zante fustic, and also venetian sumach, is the wood of _rhus cotinus_ (fustet, or smoke tree), a southern european and asiatic shrub of the natural order anacardiaceae, called by gerarde "red sumach," and apparently the "coccygia" and "cotinus" of pliny (_nat. hist._ xiii. 41, xvi. 30). its colouring matter is fisetin, c15h10o6, which was synthesized by s. von kostanecki (_ber._, 1904, 37, p. 384). (see dyeing.)