fabric

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈfæb.ɹɪk/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French fabrique,^[2][3][4] from Latin fabrica (“workshop; a skilful production, structure”),^[3][2][5] from faber, an artisan in hard materials,^[3][6][7] from Proto-Italic *fafro-, from PIE *dʰabʰ-, perhaps meaning craftsman.^[3] It is a doublet of forge, a smithy.^[2][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A building, an edifice: 1483, in Caxton's Golden Legend; obsolete.^[2][8][3]

Semantic evolution

Word Origins traces the development from a building to a machine or appliance (early 17th century) and something made, which led to the main current sense, cloth.^[5] A contrivance or engine is an obsolete sense of 1596.^[8] A thing made, a structure of any kind, is from the 1630s,^[3][8] and figuratively, as the fabric of society, from before 1637.^[8] A manufactured material is first recorded in 1753,^[2][3] and a textile in 1791.^[2][3] Fabricate, to make, is from about 1450, and to invent falsely from the late 18th century.^[2][5] In Banffshire Scots a fabric was a big, clumsy person or animal.^[9]

Timeline

• 1483 – a building.^[2]
• 1596 – an engine (obsolete).^[8]
• 1630s – a structure.^[3]
• 1753 – a manufactured material.^[2]
• 1791 – a textile.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Cloth made by weaving, knitting or felting fibres.
2. The texture or quality of such cloth.
3. The basic structure of something: the fabric of society.
4. The walls, floor and roof of a building.

Word family

• fabric softener

Related words

• fabricate
• fabrication
• forge
• prefabricate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)