tussar

• tussah
• tusseh
• tusser
• tussor
• tussore

From Hindi तसर (tasar), from Sanskrit तसर (tasara, “shuttle”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtʌsə/

tussar (countable and uncountable, plural tussars)

1. A deep gold-coloured silk produced from larvae of several species of silk worms belonging to the moth genus Antheraea
   • 1841, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Volume 10, Part 2, p. 511,

     The principal manufacture throughout this district is the tusser or jungle silk.

   • 1863, The Technologist: A Monthly Record of Science Applied to Art, Manufacture, and Culture, Peter Lund Simmons (ed.), London: Kent & Co., Vol. III, p. 111,

     The Tusseh silk is pretty well known in the English market; it is supplied by a large moth measuring five and a-half to six inches from wing to wing, the Antheræa paphia of Linnæus: The silk is strong and coarse, of a flax-brown colour.

   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1943, Chapter IX, p. 143-4,

     She wore a black lustre skirt that just exposed her broken button-boots, a white blouse topped heavily with moth-eaten lace, a long coat of well-worn tusser, and a purplish black silk hat […]

   • 1996, Manju Kak, "The Collector" in Requiem for an Unsung Revolutionary and Other Stories, Delhi: Ravi Dayal, p. 165,

     The carpets were rich with colour and design, the sofas were covered in silks and tussars […]

   • 2008, Nicholas Storey, History of Men's Fashion: What the Well-Dressed Man is Wearing, Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Remember When, p. 99

     […] one could very well have such a jacket made out of tussore (or tussar) which is unbleached raw silk produced by the larvae of the moth Antheraea paphia.

2. Any of the moth species used to produce tussar silk
   • 1980, Lalita Prasad Vidyarthi, The Kharia, Then and Now: A Comparative Study of Hill, Dhelki, and Dudh Kharia of the Central-eastern Region of India, Concept Publishing, p. 197,

     Kharias have also learnt to prepare certain fibres for different purpose as they are expert in spinning, weaving, tussar rearing […]

   • 2006, Shankarlal C. Bhatt, Land and People of Indian States and Union Territories: In 36 Volumes. Madhya Pradesh, Volume 15, p. 289,

     In order to strengthen the rearing of tusser worms, extensive plantation of Saja and Arjun plants will be undertaken by the forest department.

   • 2015, Judith MacKenzie, The Intentional Spinner: A Holistic Approach to Making Yarn, Adams Media,

     Tussah moths are harder to raise than Bombyx moths, which have been selected for thousands of years for domestication.

• Asturs, Rastus, Surats, Sūtras, Tarsus, surats, sutras, sūtras, tarsus

tussar

1. indefinite plural of tuss

tussar

1. present tense of tussa.