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Linsey-woolsey (less often, woolsey-linsey or in Scots, wincey) is a coarse twill or plain weave textiles weaving with a linen warp and a woollen weft. Similar fabrics woven with a cotton warp and woollen weft in Colonial America were also called linsey-woolsey or wincey.American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, cited at FreeDictionary.com, retrieved 22 June 2007, and Random House Dictionary, via [2] retrieved 25 June 2007Baumgarten, Linda: What Clothes Reveal: The Language of Clothing in Colonial and Federal America, Yale University Press, 2002. , page 96 The name derives from a combination of lin (an archaic word for flax, whence "linen") and wool. This textile has been known since ancient times. Known as shatnez (שַׁעַטְנֵז) in Hebrew, the wearing of this fabric was forbidden in the Torah and hence Halakha."A garment of a Shaatnez mixture shall not come upon you" (); "Do not wear Shaatnez — wool and linen together" ().
The coarse fabric called stuff woven at Kidderminster from the 17th century, originally a wool fabric, may have been of linsey-woolsey construction later on. Linsey-woolsey was an important fabric in the Colonial America due to the relative scarcity of wool in the colonies. Many sourcesSee Linsey-Woolsey at Quilt.com, retrieved 22 June 2007 say it was used for whole-cloth , and when parts of the quilt wore out the remains would be cut up and pieced into . Some sources dispute thisSee for example Historic Textile Research & Articles , retrieved 22 June 2007 and say that the material was too rough and would have been used instead for clothing and occasionally for light . It was also used as a ground fabric for needlepoint.
Linsey-woolsey was valued for its warmth, durability, and cheapness, but not for its looks.
Linsey-woolsey is also sometimes used to refer to 18th century or bed coverings made with a linen warp and woollen weft. The term is sometimes incorrectly applied to glazed textiles. Linsey-woolsey compared to glazed fabrics in antique quits
Linsey-woolsey continues to be woven today in small quantities for living history and Colonial period decorating uses.
"Linsey-woolsey" was also used as an expression in Early Modern English to mean "nonsense" or "gibberish", i.e. some sort of verbal mishmash; cf. Shakespeare: "But what linsey-woolsey hast thou to speak to us again?" ( All's well that ends well, IV:1)
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