Etymologically
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plush

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Pronunciation

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

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