tissu

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French tissu, participle of tistre (modern tisser). Compare Italian tessuto.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ti.sy/

• Audio; “le tissu”:

  (file)

Noun

tissu m (plural tissus)

1. fabric
2. (anatomy) tissue

Further reading

• “tissu”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle English

Alternative forms

• tissew, tisshew, tisshue, tissue, tusshewe, tussu, tysshew, tysshewe, tyssew, tyssu, tyssue

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French tissu, past participle of tistre.

Forms with /ʃ/ do not reflect palatalisation of /s/ (as in modern English); instead, they exist because Old French /s(s)/ was perceived as being phonetically closer to Middle English /ʃ/ than to /s/.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tiˈsiu̯/, /tiˈʃiu̯/
• (with stress retraction) IPA^(key): /ˈtisiu̯/, /ˈtiʃiu̯/

Noun

tissu

1. tissue (silk fabric)
2. A strip of such fabric.

Descendants

• English: tissue
• Scots: tishie

References

• “tissheu, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.