BYSSUS • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Byssus

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noun

Byssus n. (pl. E. byssuses; L. byssi)

A cloth of exceedingly fine texture, used by the ancients. It is disputed whether it was of cotton, linen, or silk. (Written also byss and byssin)

(Zool.) A tuft of long, tough filaments which are formed in a groove of the foot, and issue from between the valves of certain bivalve mollusks, as the Pinna and Mytilus, by which they attach themselves to rocks, etc.

(Bot.) An obsolete name for certain fungi composed of slender threads.

Asbestus.

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Etymology of 'Byssus'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Byssus" Quotes from Famous Books

... inspectors and overseers to the turquoise desert (i.e. Sinai) of my mother, the goddess Hathor, the lady of the turquoise. [They] carried to her silver, gold, byssus, fine (?) linen, and many things as numerous as the sand-grains, and laid them before her. And there were brought unto me most wonderfully fine turquoises, real stones, in large numbers of bags, and laid out before ...

— The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians • E. A. Wallis Budge

Words linked to "Byssus" : fiber, beard