This glossary of the terms appropriate to natural fibres and textile reinforcements is compiled primarily from the following sources:

• NP Cheremisinoff and PN Cheremisinoff, Fibreglass-Reinforced Plastics Deskbook, Ann Arbor Science, Ann Arbor - Michigan, 1978.  ISBN 0-250-40245-9.
• AD Courtney, Factors influencing the activity of glyphosate as a harvest retting agent in flax (Linum usiatatissimum), Flax seminar, Monsanto, Edinburgh, 1983.
• CA Farnfield and PJ Alvey, Textile Terms and Definitions - seventh edition, The Textile Institute, Manchester, 1975.  ISBN 0-900739-17-7.
• RR Franck (editor), Bast and other plant fibres, Woodhead Publishing Limited, Cambridge, March 2005, ISBN 1-85573-684-5.
• LM Soffer and R Molho, Cryogenic resins for glass filament wound composites, Aerojet General Report 3343, 1967. NASA-CR-72114. NASA N67-25076.
• JB Sykes (editor), The Concise Oxford Dictionary [COD], Oxford University Press, 1979.
• John Turner, Linseed Law, BASF UK Limited, Hadleigh, June 1987, ISBN 0-9502752-2-0.

Go direct to terms beginning with A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

• Acetylation: the process of introducing an acetyl radical into an organic molecule, used to describe the process of combining cellulose with acetic acid [Farnfield and Alvey].
• Accession: a plant or group of similar plants or seeds received from a single source at a single time [http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/collections/ubcbg_accession_system.ppt#4]
• Adjuvant: additive to help or improve performance of pesticides [Turner].
• Agave americana: Latin name of Maguey [Yu in Franck].
• Agave fourcroydes: Latin name of Henequen [Yu in Franck].
• Agave sisalana: Latin name of Sisal [Yu in Franck].
• Annual: completion of life cycle within twelve months of germination [Turner].
• Ash: inorganic residue after complete incineration [Turner].

B

• Baby fibre: (coir) fibre cut into small lengths [Mathai in Franck].
• Baranguay: local Abaca fibre dealer [Franck in Franck].
• Bark: outer covering of stems [Krishnan et al in Franck].
• Bast fibres: commercial reference to fibre bundles occurring in the phloem, pericycle or cortex of many plants [Turner]. Fibres obtained from the cell layers surrounding the stems of various plants [Farnfield and Alvey].
• Biennial: completion of life cycle in two years - the first vegetative and the second reproductive [Turner].
• Boehmeria nivea: Latin name for Ramie. See China-grass [Kozlowski et al in Franck].
• Boehmeria nivea var tenaccissima: Latin name for Green ramie [Kozlowski et al in Franck].
• Braid mat: another name for sinnet mats [Mathai in Franck].
• Brattice cloth: a coarse cloth of Jute used for screens, ventilators etc, especially in mines, it is often coated [Krishnan et al in Franck].
• Breaking: part of the scutching process which breaks up the woody matter in the flax stems [Salmon-Minotte and Franck in Franck].
• Brush mat: a coir mat which has pile [Mathai in Franck].
• Buckram: stiff, coarse linen cloth used in linings and for binding books [Krishnan et al in Franck].
• Burlap: coarser cloth of Jute [Krishnan et al in Franck].

C

• Cambium: plant meristem within the vascular bundle which forms new xylem and phloem cells [Turner].
• Can: cylindrical receptacle about 1 m high into which slivers and rovings are collected after being processed [Sponner et al in Franck].
• Cannabis sativa: the botanical name of Hemp  [Sponner et al in Franck].
• Carding: the disentanglement of fibres by working them between two closely spaced, relatively moving surfaces clothed with pointed wire, pins, spikes or saw teeth [Farnfield and Alvey].
• Cellulose: polysaccharide composed of glucose units linked by glycosidic bonds to form fibrous bundles.  It is the most abundant cell wall and structural polysaccharide in plants [Turner].
• Chain mat: another name for sinnet mat [Mathai in Franck].
• Cheese: a type of yarn packet in the form of a cylinder similar to the shape of certain cheeses [Sponner et al in Franck].
• China-grass: White Ramie - Boehmeria nivea, of Chinese origin as opposed to Ramie or Green Ramie - Boehmeria nivea var tenaccissima, of Malay origin [Kozlowski et al in Franck].
• Coco logs: coir filled tubular nets (used in erosion control) [Mathai in Franck].
• Coconut pith: cork like spongy material embedded to the fibre in the coconut husk [Mathai in Franck].
• Cocos nuchifera: Latin name for coconut palm [Mathai in Franck].
• Coir bed: coir filled mesh netting bags (used in erosion control) [Mathai in Franck].
• Coir braid: three or more strings of coir yarn plaited either by hand or by mechanical device with or without an inner core [Mathai in Franck].
• Coir briquette: briquettes made from coir pith/coir pith heat pressed with other ingredients into briquettes [Mathai in Franck].
• Coir cordage: cords, ropes, etc., made from coir fibre or coir yarn [Mathai in Franck].
• Coir fender: fender made with coir fibre, yarn or rope for inner core material and coir rope suitably knotted for outer shell in different shapes [Mathai in Franck].
• Compatibiliser: an agent compounded with the matrix to enhance interfacial adhesion.
• Conditioned: subjected to an atmosphere of 20ºC and 65%RH.
• Corchorus capsularis: White or China Jute.
• Corchorus olitorius: Brown or tossa Jute.
• Core yarn: the yarn or string placed inside a rope, braid, etc., to give better shape, higher weight, etc. [Mathai in Franck].
• Corridor mats: coir mats, non-brush type, with low rib effect on both sides, manufactured on frames with the aid of iron rods.  Both the warp and weft are continuous in the mat throughout [Mathai in Franck].
• Cortex: the layer of cells between the epidermis and vascular tissue.  Although mainly parenchyma, it often contains sclerenchyma cells such as those which form the fibres in Linum usitatissimum.
• Count: an alternative to "grist" [Krishnan et al in Franck].
• Coupling agent: a surface treatment applied to the fibre to promote interfacial adhesion
• Creel mats: cut pile coir mats made on looms with two or more chains.  Pile is formed by cutting the brush chain bend over a grooved iron rod [Mathai in Franck].
• Crimp: the waviness of a fibre, expressed numerically as the crimp ratio being yarn length divided by cloth length [after Farnfield and Alvey].
• Crocking: dye rubbing off a fabric, usually due to inadequate dyeing [Kozlowski et al in Franck].
• Cultivar: distinct group of cultivated plants not normally found in natural populations.  When reproduced they retain distinguishing characters (i.e. a "variety") [Turner].
• Cuttings: the root ends of a reed, with bark adhering to it, that are cut off and processed separately [Krishnan et al in Franck].
• cv.: commercial variety.

D

• Decortication: mechanical extraction of bast fibres [Krishnan et al in Franck].  For flax, see "scutching"  [Salmon-Minotte and Franck in Franck].  Removing non-fibrous material from retted stalks or from ribbons or strips of bast or leaf fibres [Kozlowski et al in Franck].
• Dehiscent: opening or splitting at maturity to shed seeds or spores [Turner].
• Denier: the weight in grams of nine kilometres of fibre [Farnfield and Alvey].
• Dessicant: chemical applied to a crop to dry plant tissues by killing the foliage and inhibiting further uptake of moisture through the roots [Turner].
• Dew retting: retting by laying swathes of flax straw in the fields as they are pulled (also called ground retting) [Salmon-Minotte and Franck in Franck].
• Dhurries: heavy carpet fabrics [Krishnan et al in Franck].
• Divider: the machine, part of the scutching process, that draws out the layer of flax straw about to be scutched [Salmon-Minotte and Franck in Franck].
• Drafting: the process of attenuating a fibrous mass to decrease the mass per unit length [Farnfield and Alvey].
• Dregs: waste liquid produced during the decortication of sisal [Yu in Franck].
• Dry-back: the effect of recreating linen fabrics' crisp and cool handle by ironing after washing [Salmon-Minotte and Franck in Franck].
• Dutch mat: another name for corridor mat/Hollander mat [Mathai in Franck].

E

• End: the smallest commercially available bundle of glass filaments [Soffer and Molho].
• End (weaving): an individual warp thread [Farnfield and Alvey].
• Entities: jute fibres processed at the first carding stage [Krishnan et al in Franck].
• Enzymes: complex molecules of protein produced by living cells, which act as catalysts in bio-chemical reactions [Turner].
• Epidermis: protective outermost layer of cells covered by the cuticle [Turner].
• Ethylenes: growth inhibiting Plant Growth Regulators (PGR) associated with a wide range of plant processes [Turner].

F

• Felt: a Jute fabric characterised by the entangled condition of many or all of its component fibres.  The technology used for manufacturing jute felts is needle punching [Krishnan et al in Franck].
• Fibre: a unit of matter characterised by flexibility, fineness and high ratio of length to thickness [Farnfield and Alvey]
• Fibre mats: coir mats with brush formed by insertion of tufts of coir fibre on alternate warp strands in the process of weaving [Mathai in Franck].
• Fibres: long, slender-walled sclerenchyma cells with tapered ends which interlock to provide mechanical support for the plant [Turner].
• Filament: a fibre of indefinite length [Farnfield and Alvey]

G

• Glyphosate: the trade name of N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine dessicant [McCormick].
• Grist: The mass in pounds (lb) of a spyndle of yarn [Krishnan et al in Franck].
• Ground retting: see "dew retting"  [Salmon-Minotte and Franck in Franck].
• Gunny: a strong coarse material made from Jute, especially for bagging [Krishnan et al in Franck].

H

• Hackled tow: short flax fibres produced by the hackling operation [Salmon-Minotte and Franck in Franck].
• Hackling: the operation of combing the line flax in order to remove short fibres, parallelise the remaining long (line) fibres and also remove any extraneous matter which might be mixed up with the line flax presented to the hackling frame [Salmon-Minotte and Franck in Franck].
• Hagotan: machine for spindle-stripping [Franck in Franck].
• Hands: packets of line fibres collected from scutching turbines and fed into hackling frames [Salmon-Minotte and Franck in Franck].
• Head: a large bundle of reeds [Krishnan et al in Franck].
• Hectare: 10000 square metres or 2.4711 acres.+
• Hemi-cellulose: differs from cellulose in being composed of pentose sugars or hexose sugars other than glucose.  It can be broken down by enzymes and so acts as a nutrient reserve [Turner].
• Hessian: a plain cloth made from single yarns of approximately the same linear density in warp and weft, usually made from bast fibres, particularly Jute [Krishnan et al in Franck].
• Hibiscus cannabinus: botanical name for Kenaf
• Hibiscus subdariffa: botanical name for Roselle
• Hollander mat: another name for corridor mats/Dutch mats [Mathai in Franck].
• Hurds: non-fibrous woody matter produced as a by-product of scutching [Sponner et al in Franck].

J

• Juck: stack of harvested Jute reeds [Krishnan et al in Franck].

K

• Kiers: a container used to boil and refine (clean) fabrics before dyeing [Yu in Franck].
• Kinked: short fibre produced during decortication of sisal [Yu in Franck].
• Kutcha bale: A loosely packed bale of fibre for local use [Krishnan et al in Franck].

L

• Latex backing: backing given on coir products with rubber latex containing vulcanising ingredients, non-staining antioxidants and fillers, properly expanded by mixing air [Mathai in Franck].
• Lea: the indirect yarn count system of the flax industry (number of 300 yard lengths that weigh one pound) [Salmon-Minotte and Franck in Franck].
• Line: long flax fibres [Salmon-Minotte and Franck in Franck].
• Linum usitatissimum: Botanical name for flax/linseed plants.
• Lodging: the propensity for a plant to succumb to the elements or growing conditions and collapse either temporarily or permanently - often leading to damage in the fibres [McCormick].
• Long Jute: The length of reed remaining after the removal of cuttings [Krishnan et al in Franck].
• Lovers' knot mat: coir mats made from coir rope guided through nails projected on a wooden surface in a definite order and the starting and finishing ends of the rope merged with the adjacent layers.  Mats are made in oval, oblong and circular shapes.  The mat is known as a rope mat [Mathai in Franck].
• Lumen: cavity within a tube, cell etc [COD].

M

• Manila Hemp: common name for Abaca fibre.
• Matting: a woven fabric from coir yarn generally used as rugs, runners and wall-to-wall furnishing [Mathai in Franck].
• Matting rugs: mattings of different weaves cut to rug sizes with ends bound, tucked in or fringed, as required [Mathai in Franck].
• Mattress fibre: short and resilient fibre mechanically extracted from dry husk of ripe coconuts [Mathai in Franck].
• Mercerisation: the treatment of cellulosic textiles in yarn or fabric form with a concentrated solution of caustic alkali [soda], whereby the fibres are swollen, the strength and dye affinity of the materials are increased, and their handle is modified. The process takes its name from its discoverer, John Mercer (1844)” [Farnfield and Alvey].
• Meristem: localised tissue of active cell division controlled by plant hormones and responsible for growth of the shoot tip, root tip and cambium [Turner].
• Mesh mats: coir mats made on frames with nails projected on it, by laying yarn in a criss-cross manner and knotting the intersecting points with coir yarn, producing a mesh effect [Mathai in Franck].
• Mesh matting: the matting woven by positioning warp and weft relatively at a higher distance to form mesh effect [Mathai in Franck].
• Metabolism: the sum of all the physical and biochemical processes within a plant [Turner].
• Mid-Point Flowering (MPF): the stage at which 50% of the inflorescences per plant had opened or produced capsules [Courtney].
• MPF: Mid-Point Flowering
• Musacea textilis: Botanical name of Abaca plant [Franck in Franck].
• Muslin: lightweight plain or leno weave fabric [Krishnan et al in Franck].

N

• Necrosis: death of part of a plant [Turner].
• Niwar: narrow width fabrics manufactured on tape looms [Krishnan et al in Franck].
• Noil: the shorter fibres separated from the longer fibres in combing during the preparatory process before spinning [Kozlowski et al in Franck].
• Non-brush mats: coir mats without brush or pile [Mathai in Franck].
• Non-reversible mattings: coir mattings with differential weave effects on face and reverse sides [Mathai in Franck].

P

• Padding: impregnation of a substrate of a liquor or a paste followed by squeezing [Krishnan et al in Franck].
• Parenchyma: relatively unspecialised tissue formed from basic, least modified cells, used to store or manufacture nutrients [Turner].
• Pathogen: parasite or causal agent which can cause disease in a host [Turner].
• Pectin: structural polysaccharide found in the cell walls of plants [Turner].
• Perennial: living more than two years and usually flowering each year [Turner].
• Pericycle: region lying in the layer of cells (endodermis) at the boundary of the cortex and vascular cylinder [Turner].
• Phloem: soft vascular tissue comprised of sieve tubes in which sugars and other nutrients are transported throughout the plant [Turner].
• Polysaccharides: large class of natural carbohydrates including cellulose and starch [Turner].
• Porter: a term originally used as a measure of the spacing of wires in the loom reed.  The porter measure of a loom reed is the number of splits (space between wires) in a reed length of 37 inches divided by twenty.  Thus a 10-porter reed contains 200 splits in a length of 37 inches.  In jute weaving, each split normally carries more than one thread, and sometimes the spacing of the warp ends in the woven fabric is given in porter measure.  To avoid confusion, thread spacing in fabric should always be expressed as threads per unit length [Krishnan et al in Franck].
• Proto-stem: name of the central structure of the Abaca plant [Franck in Franck].
• Pucca bale: A densely packed bale of fibre for export [Krishnan et al in Franck].
• Puller: agricultural machine which harvests flax stems by pulling [Salmon-Minotte and Franck in Franck].
• Pulling: the harvesting of flax stalks by pulling them out of the ground, rather than cutting them as is usual with other crops [Salmon-Minotte and Franck in Franck].

Q

• Quality ratio: the single-thread breaking load of a yarn in pound force (lbf) expressed as a percentage of the grist, or count [Krishnan et al in Franck].

R

• Ratt: a manually operated set of wheels for twisting and spinning coir yarn [Mathai in Franck].
• Reed: the bundle of fibres extracted from a single plant stem [Krishnan et al in Franck].
• Retting: subjection of crop to biological or chemical treatment to make fibre bundles more easily separable from the woody part of the stem [Krishnan et al in Franck].  The decomposition of pectins that bind fibres to the other parts of the stems and leaves, usually by the action of enzymes produced by bacteria or fungi [Salmon-Minotte and Franck in Franck].  The process of keeping the (coconut) husks immersed in water for a period ranging from six to ten months during the course of which the pith and other matters become loosened, allowing easy extraction of the fibre [Mathai in Franck].
• Ribbonning: separating the outer bark/epidermis from the rest of the stalk [Kozlowski et al in Franck].
• Rippling: the process of removing seed pods from harvested flax stalks [Salmon-Minotte and Franck in Franck].
• Rod mats: coir brush mats in which brush is formed by cutting coir yarns folded two, three or more together and wound by hand on a grooved iron rod along with alternate warp strands [Mathai in Franck].
• Roving: a bundle of continuous untwisted glass fibres [Cheremisinoff and Cheremisinoff]
• Runnage: the length in metres of one kilogram of (coir) yarn [Mathai in Franck].

S

• Sack: coarse fabrics made out of jute yarns for making bags [Krishnan et al in Franck].
• Sclerenchyma: strengthening tissue composed of relatively short cells (sclereids) and long ones (fibres) such as in Linum usitatissimum [Turner].
• Scorage of yarn: a number indicating the fineness or coarseness of coir yarn, which is one-twentieth of the number of yarns that could be laid close to each other without overlapping in a length of 0.914 m [Mathai in Franck].
• Scutched tow: short flax fibres produced by the scutching operation [Salmon-Minotte and Franck in Franck].
• Scutcher: the machine used to scutch flax (and hemp).  Also the person who operates the machine [Salmon-Minotte and Franck in Franck].
• Scutching: the process of removing line fibres from tow and extraneous matter such as shiv, earth, pebbles and weeds.  When referring to this process in connection with other fibres the word "decorticating" is usually used [Salmon-Minotte and Franck in Franck].
• Senescence: process of vegetative decay [Turner].
• Sheaf-leaf: leaf-like structure making up the proto-stem (in Abaca) [Franck in Franck].
• Shive or Shiv: the woody matter of flax stalks that is removed during scutching [Salmon-Minotte and Franck in Franck].  By-product of flax scutching formed from the woody fragments of xylem [Turner].
• Shots: The weft threads inserted on the loom [Krishnan et al in Franck].
• Sinnet mats: coir mats made of coir braid guided between the nails projected on a flat surface as per design with stitches to hold the layers of braid together [Mathai in Franck].
• Sorting: selection of coir yarn based on colour, twist, runnage, etc. [Mathai in Franck].
• Spindle: an iron or wooden rod shaped into a hook at one end having a stud at the centre to receive a string around from a large wheel for its rotation, used to impart twist for spinning [Mathai in Franck].
• Spindle stripping: semi-manual removal of gums and extraneous matter from tuxies [Franck in Franck].
• Spinning: the drafting and twisting of natural (or man-made) fibres.  Also the extrusion of filaments by spiders or silkworms [Farnfield and Alvey].
• Sprit: small fragments of woody matter that may not have been removed during fibre and yarn processing and which can appear as lighter coloured specks after fabric dyeing [Salmon-Minotte and Franck in Franck].
• Spyndle: a length of 14400 yards. Jute system of yarn counts: no. of lengths of 14400 yards that weigh 1 pound (1 yard = 914 mm, 1 lb = 454 gm) [Krishnan et al in Franck].
• Stack: arrangement of jute stems in a bundle form [Krishnan et al in Franck].
• Stationary ratt: the spinning wheel fixed on the ground used for making single strands of coir yarn and also for doubling [Mathai in Franck].
• Strand: one of the individual components (a yarn) of a folded or cabled construction [Farnfield and Alvey]
• Stripping: removing strips of bast fibres from the stalks of the plants [Kozlowski et al in Franck].
• Sulphur smoking: treatment before shipping to disinfect coir products and obtain a brighter colour [Mathai in Franck].

T

• Tenacity: the maximum specific stress that is developed in a tensile test taken to rupture [Farnfield and Alvey], normally measured in cN/tex.
    Tenacity (force.length/weight) x density (weight/volume) gives a "stress" (force/area) with 1 cN/tex = (10 x relative density x tenacity value) MPa,
    warning: this equation does not accurately convert values between the two systems for natural fibres.
• Tex: a unit in the ISO system describing the linear density (mass/unit length) of fibres, filaments and yarns [Farnfield and Alvey]:  1 tex = 1 g/km, 1 kilotex = 1 g/m or 1 kg/km, 1 millitex = 1 mg/km [Farnfield and Alvey]
• Three-ply yarn: wheel spun coir yarn in three-ply made from medium and short staple fibre from retted husk, hard twisted and hard spun, brown to grey in colour, hairy, hard and tough in texture, containing varying amounts of pith, in the runnage range 40-55 m/kg (scorage: 4-8) [Mathai in Franck].
• Topping: cutting-off the top part of the Abaca plant during harvesting [Franck in Franck].
• Tow: A large number of filaments collected together in a loose strand or assemblage, substantially without twist [Farnfield and Alvey].  Short flax fibres [Salmon-Minotte and Franck in Franck].
• Traditional loom: a wooden handloom traditionally used for weaving coir mats, matting, carpets, etc. [Mathai in Franck].
• Tumbling: cutting down the proto-stem during harvesting of the Abaca plant [Franck in Franck].
• Turgid: state of turgor where plant cells are firm through maximum water absorption [Turner].
• Turner: agricultural machine used to turn swathes of flax straw [Salmon-Minotte and Franck in Franck].
• Turning: the process of manipulating the swathes of flax straw lying on the ground whilst they are retting so as to ensure that the retting in uniform throughout the swathe [Salmon-Minotte and Franck in Franck].
• Tuxie: ribbon of Abaca fibres after separation from the harvested leaf stem [Franck in Franck].
• Tuxying: stripping the tuxies off the harvested Abaca leaf-stem [Franck in Franck].
• Twine: twisted threads of jute, hemp, etc., used for package tying [Krishnan et al in Franck].
• Two-treadle basket weave: a two-treadle weave in which two or more warp threads work together with two or more weft inserted in the same shed for successive picks [Mathai in Franck].
• Two-treadle plain weave: plain weave in which warp and weft work one up and one down then one under and one over respectively [Mathai in Franck].

U

• Ultimate cell: the basic plant cell from which fibres are constructed [Krishnan et al in Franck].
• Union: fabric with cotton yarn in warp and jute yarn in the weft [Krishnan et al in Franck].
• Urtica dioica: botanical name of stinging nettle.

V

• Vascular: containing vessels or ducts for conveying blood, sap, etc [COD].

W

• Warp: the lengthways thread in a fabric as woven [Farnfield and Alvey].
• Water retting: retting by placing bundle of flax straw in water [Salmon-Minotte and Franck in Franck].
• Webbing: the material in the form of tapes used for fastening the cut ends of coir matting by stitching/pasting or the process of fixing the webbing material at the cut edges of matting [Mathai in Franck].
• Weft: the widthways thread in a fabric as woven [Farnfield and Alvey].
• White Ramie: See China-grass [Kozlowski et al in Franck].

X

• Xylem: woody vascular tissue which conducts water and mineral salts absorbed by the roots [Turner].

Y

• Yarn: a product of substantial length and relatively small cross section of fibres or filaments, with or without twist [Farnfield and Alvey]
• Yield: the number of yards per pound of reinforcement [?]
• Yarn guide: a wooden block in triangular shape with grooves running along the length to receive primary strands, used for the doubling process in spinning and rope making [Mathai in Franck].

Advanced Composites Manufacturing Centre School of Engineering Faculty of Technology University of Plymouth Plymouth  PL4 8AA  United Kingdom