/fus"cheuhn/ , n.
1. a stout fabric of cotton and flax.
2. a fabric of stout twilled cotton or of cotton and low-quality wool, with a short nap or pile.
3. inflated or turgid language in writing or speaking: Fustian can't disguise the author's meager plot.
adj.
4. made of fustian: a fustian coat; fustian bed linen.
5. pompous or bombastic, as language: fustian melodrama.
6. worthless; cheap: fustian knaves and dupes.
[ 1150-1200; ME fustaigne fustaneum, perh. a deriv. of L fustis stick, cudgel (LL: trunk; cf. FUSTY), if a trans. of L xylinus, Gk (Septuagint) xýlina lína cotton, lit., linen from wood; Fostat, a suburb of Cairo, has also been proposed as the source of fustaneum ]
Syn. 3. bombast, rant, claptrap.