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batiste (buh-TEEST, ba-TEEST) - n., a fine soft sheer fabric of plain weave of linen or/and cotton, cambric.
Some authorities claim it's a few specific kinds of cambric, while others that in French the two are synonymous, implying that it ought to also be so in English. Both terms come from Picardy (the region bordering Belgium and the North Sea), cambric after the city of Cambrai but batiste is a little more obscure: stories that it's after 14th century weaver Baptiste of Cambrai have no historical basis -- instead, going by its historical Picard form batiche, it's probably from bat-, stem of battre, to beat/separate (fibres), which is what you do to prepare linen for spinning.
---L.
Some authorities claim it's a few specific kinds of cambric, while others that in French the two are synonymous, implying that it ought to also be so in English. Both terms come from Picardy (the region bordering Belgium and the North Sea), cambric after the city of Cambrai but batiste is a little more obscure: stories that it's after 14th century weaver Baptiste of Cambrai have no historical basis -- instead, going by its historical Picard form batiche, it's probably from bat-, stem of battre, to beat/separate (fibres), which is what you do to prepare linen for spinning.
---L.
