Etymologically
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tissue

Etymology and origin of the English word tissue

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1366
Borrowed from
Old French tissu
Ultimate origin
Old French (tissu)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈtɪʃ.uː/, /ˈtɪs.juː/[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English tissew, tissu, borrowed from Old French tissu (“a ribbon, headband, belt of woven material”),[2][3][4] a noun use of tissu “woven”, the past participle of tistre “to weave”,[3][2][5] from Latin texere (“to weave, make”),[3][2][6] from the PIE root Proto-Indo-European *teks- (“to weave, fabricate”).[3] See text.[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A rich cloth often interwoven with gold or silver: perhaps before 1366 in the OED;[7] a band or belt of rich material about 1385, in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Any woven fabric is from 1565,[2][7] and fine gauzy stuffs by 1730.[3][7] The figurative sense, an interwoven series, as in a tissue of lies, is from 1711 in Barnhart and the OED, the early 17th century in Word Origins.[2][7][6] The biological sense, the cellular fabric of living bodies, is from 1831, in Carlyle,[2][3] after the French usage of the anatomist Bichat,[3] and of plants from 1837.[7] Tissue paper (1777) was supposedly so called because it was placed between folds of fine silk fabric;[3] tissue alone for it is from 1780–81 in the OED,[7] and a paper handkerchief from 1929.[3][6]

Timeline

  • c. 1366 – a rich cloth.[7]
  • c. 1385 – a band of rich material.[2]
  • 1565 – any woven fabric.[2][7]
  • 1711 – a web, network.[2][7]
  • 1777 – tissue paper.[2][3]
  • 1831 – in biology.[2][3]
  • 1929 – a paper handkerchief.[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A mass of similar cells forming a part of an animal or plant: muscle tissue.
  2. A piece of soft, thin paper used as a handkerchief.
  3. Thin, light paper used for wrapping; tissue paper.
  4. A fine, light fabric, such as gauze.
  5. An interwoven series: a tissue of lies.

Word family

  • tissuey
  • tissular
  • tissual
  • adipose tissue
  • connective tissue
  • facial tissue
  • granulation tissue
  • scar tissue

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Tissue.” Etymologically, 16 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/tissue. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

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