plush

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French pluche,^[2][3][4][5] a contracted variant of peluche (“a velvet-like fabric, originally of silk”),^[2][3][6] from Old French peluchier (“to pick, pluck, untangle hair”),^[2][3][4][7] from Vulgar Latin *piluccō (“to remove the hair”),^[3][4][6][8] from Latin pilus (“hair”).^[7][9][10] Barnhart and Etymonline explain the name by the last step in weaving plush, when the loops of the pile are plucked or cut.^[3][4] Merriam-Webster takes the Vulgar Latin verb as an irregular formation from pilō (“to remove the hair from”),^[8] and the Shorter Oxford brings in Italian peluzzo, a diminutive of pelo (“hair”).^[11] The French word also passed into Dutch pluche, German Plüsch and Swedish plysch.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A rich fabric of silk, cotton or wool with a long soft nap: 1590, in records of Queen Elizabeth's wardrobe,^[2] 1590s in Etymonline.^[4] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date it to 1594, in Nashe's The Unfortunate Traveller.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

Plush was a costly cloth, used for upholstery and for the livery of servants;^[2] footmen's plush breeches were called plushes (1838).^[2][8] As an adjective the word first meant simply "made of plush" (1615),^[2][8] and plushy is recorded from 1611.^[3] Wiktionary links the sense "luxurious" to the high cost of plush upholstery in past centuries;^[1] the OED records it from 1890, Barnhart and Etymonline from 1927,^[2][3][4] and Green's Dictionary of Slang records plush and plushy for luxurious, stylish or snobbish from 1866.^[12] American slang added on the plush, in comfort, and to ride the plush, to travel in a luxurious railway car (both 1911).^[2] The plush toy, a stuffed toy animal covered with plush, is recorded from 1886,^[2] and the noun plushie for such a toy by 2003.^[4]

Timeline

• 1590 – a rich fabric with a long soft nap.^[2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date it to 1594.^[3][8]
• 1611 – plushy, like plush.^[3]
• 1615 – adjective, made of or covered with plush.^[2][8]
• 1838 – plural plushes, footmen's plush breeches (obsolete).^[2]
• 1886 – of a toy, stuffed and covered with plush.^[2]
• 1890 – luxurious, sumptuous.^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline date this sense to 1927.^[3][4]
• 1911 – American slang on the plush, in comfort.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fabric of silk, cotton, wool or rayon with a pile longer and softer than that of velvet, used especially for upholstery.^[9][8][2]
2. (obsolete, 1838–52) In the plural, breeches of plush, as worn by footmen.^[2][8]

Adjective

1. Richly furnished; luxurious and expensive: a plush hotel suite overlooking the harbour.^[9][8][2]
2. Made of or covered with plush; of a carpet, having a thick pile: plush curtains.^[8][2]

Word family

• plushly
• plushness
• plushed
• plushlike
• plushy

Related words

• pluck
• pile

Usage notes

A separate nautical noun plush, the surplus left over after the grog or gravy was shared out among a ship's crew (1822), is probably short for overplush or surplush, variants of overplus and surplus.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com