Also 7 tussre, tessar, tessur, 9 tasar, tassar, tussar, tussur; 8–9 tusseh, tussah, tusha. [ad. Hindī (and Urdū) tasar:—Skr. tasara (also trasara) shuttle, ‘perhaps from the form of the cocoon’ (Yule & Burnell).
Of the various spellings of this word the type tussar, -er, -ur represents most exactly the Hindī original. The forms tussah, -eh, though frequently employed in works dealing specially with India, are erroneous and due to some misunderstanding. The prevailing form in ordinary use is now tussore (prob. after Indian place-names such as Mysore).]
1. A coarse brown silk (furnished by Antheræa mylitta and other species of silkworm) made in and imported from India. Also ellipt. a dress made of this.
α. 1619. in Foster, Eng. Factories Ind. (1906), 112. A kind of Bengala stuff of silke … called tessar. Ibid. (1620), 198. Quilts of ‘Sutgonge’ … lined … partly with taffeta and partly with ‘tessur.’
1620. (Oct. 6) Factory Rec., Patna, I. (India Office MS. Rec.). Wee have finished our provisiones for this yeare … 12 courge of Tussres.
1810. in Milburn, Oriental Comm. (1825), 263. Duty on … Tusha, 5 annas per seer of 80 Sic. wt.
1827. D. Johnson, Ind. Field Sports, 165. A coarse kind of silk known by the name of tussar, is produced there in large quantities.
1845. Stocqueler, Handbk. Brit. India (1854), 196. A lighter silk, termed tusser, much used … for room-punkahs,… gentlemen’s blouses and ladies’ morning-dresses.
1873. Blochmann, trans. Aīn-i-Akbarī, I. 94 (Y.). Tassar, per piece … 1/3 to 2 Rupees.
1876. Cobb, Silk, in Brit. Manuf. Industr., V. 171. The silks now generally recognized as tussahs,… are a description of wild silk [etc.].
1884. Health Exhib. Catal., p. xliii. Illustrations of silk culture, especially tussur.
β. 1876. Besant & Rice, Gold. Butterfly, III. 132. You think it is silk,… and I believe they call it Indian tussore.
1884. G. Allen, Philistia, I. 58. A perfect fright in my shabby old Indian tussore.
1893. F. F. Moore, I Forbid Banns (1899), 120. Wearing a costume that … must have cost fifty guineas, while my daughters … are compelled to put up with the plainest of Tussores!
b. More fully tusser or tussore silk.
α. 1796. M. Atkinson, in Trans. Linn. Soc. (1804), VII. 41. A specimen of Bughy Tusseh silk.
1838. M. Martin, East India, II. I. iv. 157. The chief use to which the tree … is … applied is to rear the Tasar silk.
1867. Pitt-Rivers, Evol. Culture, Prim. Warfare, I. (1906), 62, note. The Saturnia mylitta is the caterpillar from which the Tusseh-silk is obtained.
1884. Health Exhib. Catal., 148/2. Tussah Silk, Corah Silk, Chuddahs.
β. 1882. Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, 504. Tussore silks … are of Indian manufacture.
1896. Daily News, 26 May, 6/4. The wild silks of India, known in commerce as ‘Tussore silk,’ of which ladies’ dresses and various articles are made.
2. A silkworm that yields tusser silk: = tusser-worm (see 3).
1796. M. Atkinson, in Trans. Linn. Soc. (1804), VII. 41. There are none of the Palma Christi species of Tusseh to be had here.
3. attrib. and Comb., as tusser cloth, dress, parasol, stuff; tusser-coloured adj.; tusser-moth, any moth of which the larva (tusser-worm) yields tusser, as the Indian Antheræa mylitta and the Chinese A. pernyi; tusser-(silk)worm, any silkworm yielding tusser; the larva of a tussermoth.
α. 1908. New Reformer, I. 414. The varieties are that of the well-known Tassar … woven into the common *Tassar cloth, so highly esteemed all over the world for light clothing.
1882. Standard, 1 July, 2/1. The hat prepared to wear with it is of *tusser-coloured straw.
1802. Roxburgh, in Trans. Linn. Soc. (1804), VII. 34. A most durable, coarse, dark-coloured silk, commonly called Tusseh-silk, which is woven into a kind of cloth called *Tusseh doot’hies [DHOTI].
1834. T. Brown, Bk. Butterfl. & Moths (ed. 2), I. Pref. That splendid insect, the *Tusseh Moth of Bengal.
1876. Sat. Rev., 14 Oct., 468/1. The work of the *Tussur silk-weavers.
1796. M. Atkinson, in Trans. Linn. Soc. (1804), VII. 41. There is another variation of the *Tusseh silk-worm in the hills near Bauglipore.
1837. Helfer in Jrnl. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, VI. 42. The Tusseh Silkworm … is the most common in use of the native silkworms.
1620. in Foster, Eng. Factories India (1906), 197. *Tusser stufes of Bengala, of halfe silke, halfe cotten.
1813. W. Milburn, Oriental Comm. (1825), 303. There are two other kinds of worms which produce silk in Bengal, viz. the *Tusseh and Arrindy worms.
1878. T. Wardle, Monogr. on Tusser & other Silks India, 3. Silk produced by the Tasar, Tusser or Tussore worm.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer (1891), 336. Augusta’s dust-coloured *tusser wrap.
β. 1837. Daily News, 20 July, 6/1. A *tussore-coloured lace dress.
1896. ‘H. S. Merriman,’ Flotsam, iv. 46. Cool brown *tussore dresses, embroidered in white.
1881. Miss Braddon, Asphodel, I. 54. Under her big *tussore parasol.
