Forms: 6–8, 9 (dial.) flan(n)en, 6–7 flan(n)ing, flan(n)ell, (7 flannion), 7, 9 (dial.) flannin, 8 Sc. flainen, 6– flannel. [Of uncertain etymology. App. first recorded in Eng., whence the continental forms were prob. adopted: F. flanelle (late 17th c.), It. frannella, frenella, flannella, Sp. flanela, franela, Pg. farinella (? influenced by farinha flour), Ger. flanell (1715), Du. flanel, flenel. As flannel was already in 16th c. a well-known production of Wales, a Welsh origin for the word seems antecedently likely. Some scholars have conjectured that the form flannen is the original, and is a corruption of Welsh gwlanen ‘a flannel’ (O. Pughe), f. gwlân wool (= Ir. olann:—OCeltic *ulanā:—older *wlanā). This is plausible, but involves some difficulties: the Welsh word is not originally a name for the material, but (as is indicated by its formation with the individualizing suffix -en) means literally an article or piece of material made of wool; and the assumed change of flannen into flannel is perh. less explicable than would be the contrary change, which might be ascribed to the analogy of linen, woollen. Another suggestion is that the word is an AF. diminutive of OF. flaine blanket or coverlet.]
1. An open woollen stuff, of various degrees of fineness, usually without a nap.
1503. Privy Purse Exp. Eliz. of York (1830), 94. For iiij yerdes of fflanell … iiij s.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, II. ii. § 1. 99. She found Dorus, apparelled in flanen, with a Goats skin cast vpon him, and a garland of Laurell mixt with Cypresse leaues on his head.
1597. T. J., Serm. Paules C., 54. Thou shall haue course flaning to be thy best attyre.
1652. Sessions Rec. Wenlock, 9 Aug., in Jackson & Burne, Shropsh. Folk-lore, xxxii. (1883), 480. John Eavens badger of flanen a revolted Parliament souldier as hee confesseth and sayes hee will now continue a cavelleire as long as he lives.
1677–8. Marvell, Corr., cccxxii. Wks. 1872–5, II. 581. An Act was ordered for greater penaltyes upon those that do not bury in flannell.
1704. F. Fuller, Med. Gymn. (1711), 212. Flannel is scarce necessary or convenient on this side old Age.
1790. Burns, Tam o’ Shanter, 153.
| Now Tam, O Tam! had thae been queans, | |
| A’ plump and strapping in their teens, | |
| Their sarks, instead o’ creeshie flannen, | |
| Been snaw-white seventeen hunder linnen! |
1849. Claridge, Cold Water-cure, 69. Mr. Priessnitz expects all his patients to leave off wearing flannel or cotton next to the body; he maintains that by keeping up too much heat, they weaken the skin, which then is less efficient in performing its offices, and in consequence people become delicate and diseased.
1882. Beck, Draper’s Dict., s.v. Flannel, Such [Flannels] as have the pile raised on one side (which is done by teasels or by cards, and called Perching) are termed Raised Flannels; when both sides are so covered they are Double-raised Flannels.
b. pl. Different kinds of flannel; flannel goods in general.
1581. Act 23 Eliz., c. 9 § 1. Logwood … wherewith divers Dyers have and do dye daily divers … Caps, Flannels.
1643. Prynne, Open. Gt. Seale, 21. All Worsteds and Flannins within these Townes and their Suburbs.
1875. Ure’s Dict. Arts, II. 401. In Ireland a few varieties of low flannels and coatings, called Galways, are manufactured from Irish grown wool.
† c. With reference to the obligation of burying in woollen (18 & 19 Chas. II., c. 4): A shroud. Obs.
a. 1683. Oldham, Sat., in Poems & Transl. (1684), 174.
| Of all his [Butler’s] Gains by Verse he could not save | |
| Enough to purchase Flannel, and a Grave. |
1683. Tryon, Way to Health, 320/1. If they escape the Wooden Tenement and Flannel, all they have to shew in Memory of these chargeable Treats, is an empty Purse, a disordered Mind, a loathsomely sullied Soul, and an indisposed distempered Body, as full of Diseases as an Hospital.
d. Ludicrously used to designate a Welshman.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., V. v. 172. I am not able to answer the Welsh flannel.
2. pl. a. Underclothing made of flannel; also, pieces of flannel used for bandages, etc.
1722. De Foe, Col. Jack (1840), 296. Now having fair weather and a pleasant voyage, and my flannels taken off my legs, I must hint a little what cargo I had with me.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl., I. 17 April. Tell Gwyllim that she forgot to pack-up my flannels and wide shoes in the trunk-mail.
1841. Emerson, Nat., Conservative, Wks. (Bohn), II. 274. The conservative assumes sickness as a necessity, and his social frame is a hospital, his total legislation is for the present distress, a universe in slippers and flannels, with bib and pap-spoon, swallowing pills and herb-tea.
b. Garments of flannel, for boating, cricket etc.: to get or receive one’s flannels (see quot. 1889).
1888. J. Payn, Myst. Mirbridge, ix. The last time he had been in that field he had worn cricketing flannels, and had made five runs, which had been a good average for him.
1889. Boy’s Own Paper, 24 Aug., 746/1. That summer was one of the brightest known for years, a time of trial to the panting citizen in his sunbaked streets, but of unmixed delight to us careless schoolboys, who could be half the day out in the open air, lightly dressed in flannels, breathing health and mirth at every pore of our limbs, that drank the strength of light in one invigorating pastime after another.
1889. Barrère & Leland, Slang Dict., Flannels (Harrow), to get one’s flannels is to obtain promotion to the school, cricket, or football eleven.
3. (See quot.)
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., IV. 346/1. Flannel, the first stage in the manufacture of plain cloth.
4. transf. a. Natural flannel (see quot. 1856). b. In popular names of certain woolly-leaved plants: Poor Man’s Flannel = ADAM’S FLANNEL; Our Lord’s or Our Saviour’s Flannel: Ecticum vulgare (Britten & H.). c. slang (see quot. 1823).
1823. ‘J. Bee,’ Slang, Flannel (warm), grog, punch, or gin-twist, with a dash of beer in.
1856. Griffith & Henfrey, Microgr. Dict., 265. Flannel, Natural, a harsh fibrous texture, sometimes found covering meadows, rocks, etc., after an inundation. It consists of the interwoven filaments of Confervæ, with adherent or entangled Diatomaceæ, Infusoria, crystals of carbonate of lime, etc.
5. attrib. or adj. a. Made of flannel.
1585. Higgins, trans. Junius’ Nomenclator, 164. A flanell peticoate: a summer garment.
1611. Florio, Bambagina, bumbasine. Also a flanell wastcote.
1618. Brathwait, Rem. after Death, Descr. Death, v.
| Nor differ they in habite; though he weares | |
| No mantle, flanning trowses, being knowne | |
| By his moath-eaten rayment; he appeares | |
| Right Irish—doublet, breeches, hose of one. |
a. 1700[?]. Dryden, Suum cuique, 84.
| In flannen robes the coughing ghost does walk, | |
| And his mouth moats like cleaner breech of hawk. |
1784. Johnson, Lett. to Mrs. Thrale, 9 Feb. I have just bespoke a flannel dress, which I can easily slip off and on, as I go into bed, or get out of it.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, II. viii. And by his side, in white flannel shirt and trousers, straw hat, the captain’s belt, and the untanned yellow cricket shoes which all the eleven wear, sits a stropping figure near six feet high, with ruddy tanned face and whiskers, curly brown hair and a laughing dancing eye.
b. In nonce-uses: Resembling flannel.
1764. Walpole, Lett. (1820), III. 9. Without being positively ill, I am positively not well: about this time of year, I have little fevers every night, which bid me repair to a more flannel climate.
1795. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Pindariana, Wks. 1812, IV. 186.
| A pair of flannel cheeks composed her face; | |
| Red were her eyes; her nose of snipe-bill race. |
6. attrib. and comb. as flannel-maker, trade, -weaver, -weaving; also † flannel-act (cf. 1 c); flannel-cake, a kind of thin griddle-cake; flannel-flower, -plant, the mullein; hence flannel-leaf; flannel rash (see quot.); flannel-weed, some water-plant.
1678. T. Jones, Of Heart & Soveraign, 403. (By a Canonical *Flannel Act) [it] must be buried out of the way, as useless.
1792. Munchhausen’s Trav., xxix. 131. At a word, ten thousand thousand Naples biscuits, crackers, buns, and *flannel-cakes, and hats of gingerbread encountered in mid air in glorious exaltation, like some huge storm of millstones, or when it rains whole clouds of dogs and cats.
1821. Clare, The Village Minstrel, and Other Poems, I. 114. Cowper Green.
| By thy woodside-railing, reeves | |
| With antique mullein’s *flannel-leaves. |
1702. Lond. Gaz., No. 3776/4. John Judd … *Flannel-maker.
1848. W. A. Bromfield, in Phytologist, III. 598. Verbascum Thapsus.… From the texture of the leaves known here [Hampshire] sometimes as the *‘flannel-plant.’
1888. W. A. Jamieson, Dis. Skin, iii. (1891), 41. The *‘flannel rash’ which Hutchinson and others have noticed on the chest and trunk, is another instance of an eruption due to clothing.
1879. Encycl. Brit., IX. 292/1. Blankets, a special branch of the *flannel trade, are extensively woven at Dewsbury in Yorkshire. Ibid., Nearly the whole population at Llanidloes and Newton, in Montgomeryshire, finds occupation in *flannel weaving, the Welsh flannels having attained a very high reputation.
1893. Pall Mall G., 10 July, 10/3. The rains … have put a little more water into the river, and there is not so much *flannel weed to contend with.
