linen: [OE] The word for ‘flax’ is an ancient one, shared by numerous Indo-European languages: Greek līnon, Latin līnum (source of English line), and prehistoric West Germanic *līnam among them. The latter passed into Old English as līn, but now survives only in the compound linseed (literally ‘flax-seed’). Its adjectival derivative, however, *līnīn, lives on in the form linen, nowadays used as a noun meaning ‘cloth made from flax’.
The Latin word, or its French descendants lin or linge, have contributed several other derivatives to English, including crinoline, lingerie [19] (literally ‘linen garments’), linnet [16] (etymologically a ‘flaxeating bird’), linoleum [19], and lint [14]. => crinoline, line, lingerie, linnet, linoleum, lint
linen (n.)
"cloth from woven flax," early 14c.; earlier as an adjective, "made of flax" (c. 1200), from Old English linin (adj.) "made of flax," from lin "flax, linen thread, cloth," from Proto-Germanic *linam (cognates: Old Saxon, Old Norse, Old High German lin "flax, linen," German Leinen "linen," Gothic lein "linen cloth"), probably an early borrowing from Latin linum "flax, linen," which, along with Greek linon is from a non-Indo-European language.
双语例句
1. We're a bit low on bed linen. You'll have to make do.
我们的床单有些次，您将就着用吧。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Anna looked tanned and majestic in her linen caftan.
安娜穿着亚麻长袍，衬出其棕色的皮肤，显得十分高贵。
来自柯林斯例句
3. The bed linen is patterned in stylish checks, stripes, diagonals and triangles.
