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Where does the word "linen" come from? It comes from Latin linum, and was adopted directly into English (1000s).
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Where does the word "linen" come from? It comes from Latin linum, and was adopted directly into English (1000s).
Linen’s story begins in Latin: linum meant “flax.” Flax, the plant from whose fibers the fabric is woven. It reached English by 1000s as linen. Settled as the English word for cloth woven from flax fiber. Today, linen means a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant.
- Stage 1 · Latin · ancient linum "flax", flax, the plant from whose fibers the fabric is woven.
- Stage 2 · English · 1000s linen "cloth woven from flax fiber", settled as the English word for cloth woven from flax fiber.