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corduroy
noun

- a thick cotton material with soft raised parallel lines in one direction, used especially for making clothes

(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)

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Etymology: The word corduroy probably originates as a compound of the words cord (a length of rope or string made of twisted threads) and the obsolete "duroy" (name for a coarse fabric made in England). The interpretation of the word as corde du roi (from French, the cord of the King) is a folk etymology.

Corduroy belongs to a group of textiles once widely known as "fustian" (likely from the Latin fustis: staff, stick of wood), which are characterised by the use of thick cotton materials. Production was primarily carried out in the East Lancashire and West Yorkshire districts of England.

The Calder Valley in West Yorkshire had a high concentration of fustian weavers, dyers and finishers from the first half of the 19th Century. Within the last few decades virtually all of the companies engaged in this type of production have closed down.

In some cases the smooth face of the fustian textiles was interrupted by equally spaced ribs, or races, running the length of the piece. These could be cut on specialised machines before dying to form ribs of raised pile, which is characteristic of corduroy as it is now known.

As a side note, the term fustian is also used to refer to pompous, inflated or pretentious writing or speech, from at least the time of Shakespeare. This literary use is because the cloth type was often used as padding, hence the notion of using superfluous words.

(sources: www.brisdbanemoss.co.uk, Wikipedia)

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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation

"If I were you, I would not wear corduroy during the job interview."