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Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—T

Taffata

or Taffety. A fabric made of silk; at one time it was watered; hence Taylor says, “No taffaty more changeable than they.” “Notre mot taffeta est formé, par onomatopée, du bruit que fait cette étoffe.”

(Francisque-Michel.)

The fabric has often changed its character. At one time it was silk and linen, at another silk and wool. In the eighteenth century it was lustrous silk, sometimes striped with gold.

Taffata phrases.

Smooth sleek phrases, euphemisms. We also use the words fustian, stuff, silken, shoddy, buckram, velvet, satin, lutestring, etc., etc., to qualify phrases and literary compositions spoken or written.

Taffata phrases, silken terms precise,
Three-piled hyperboles.

Shakespeare: Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894

Taffy

Tae'-pings

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Taffata

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