Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.593

c10.593

ATLAS, s. An obsolete word for ‘satin,’ from the Ar. atlas, used in that sense, literally ‘bare’ or ‘bald’ (comp. the Ital. raso for ‘satin’). The word is still used in German. [The Draper’s Dict. (s.v.) says that “a silk stuff wrought with threads of gold and silver, and known by this name, was at one time imported from India.” Yusuf Ali (Mon. on Silk Fabrics, p. 93) writes: “Atlas is the Indian satin, but the term satan (corrupted from the English) is also applied, and sometimes specialised to a thicker form of the fabric. This fabric is always substantial, i.e. never so thin or netted as to be semi-transparent; more of the weft showing on the upper surface than of the warp.”]