flannel

Meanings

Noun

• A soft cloth material originally woven from wool, today often combined with cotton or synthetic fibers.
• A washcloth.
• A flannel shirt.
• Soothing, plausible untruth or half-truth; claptrap.

Adjective

• Made of flannel.

Verb

• To rub with a flannel.
• To wrap in flannel.
• To flatter; to suck up to.

Origin

• From Middle English flaunneol, from Anglo-Norman flanelle (compare Norman flianné), diminutive of Old French flaine, floene, from Gaulish, from Proto-Celtic *wlānos, *wlanā (compare Welsh gwlân, Breton gloan), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂. More at wool.