Obs. Forms: 5 busteyn, 6 bustiane, bustion, bustyon, -yan, borstyan, 7 bustiam, 8 bustine, 6–8 bustian. [Derivation uncertain; cf. OF. bustanne, -ane, buttenne, ‘sorte d’étoffe fabriquée à Valenciennes’ (Godef.); It. bottana ‘specie di tela bambagina,’ mentioned along with fustagno fustian (Tommaseo and Bellini); F. boutanes ‘toile de coton de Chypre,’ boutane ‘étoffe qui se fait à Montpellier’ (Boiste).]
A cotton fabric of foreign manufacture, used for waistcoats and for certain church vestments; sometimes described as a species of fustian, but sometimes mentioned as distinct from it.
1463. in Bury Wills (1850), 18. I wele haue anothir vestement made of white busteyn.
1566. Eng. Ch. Furniture (Peacock, 1866), 43. A cope and a vestment of Bustian defaced.
1571. Wills & Inv. N. C. (1835), 362. j yeard & 1/2 of whit borstyan xviijd.
1578. Richmond. Wills (1853), 276. Viij yeards and a quarter of bustion at xiiijd. a yeard … v yeards of whit holme fustion at xiijd. a yeard.
1598. Florio, Restagno, a kinde of stuffe like bustian, such as they make wastecotes of.
1611. Cotgr., Fustaine à grain d’orge, bustian.
1611. Rates (Jam.). Bustians or woven tweill stuff, the single peece not above fifteen elnes.
1622. Malynes, Anc. Law-Merch., 229. The commodities which are not made at all, or but in small quantitie in England, and may be practised, are manie, as Buckrams, Tapistrie, Bustians, Cambrickes.
1720. Stow, Surv. (ed. Strype, 1754), II. V. xviii. 382/1. All … Fustians and Bustians made in England and Wales shall pay for each horse-pack, 8d.
1725. Ramsay, Gentl. Sheph., I. i. Neat, neat she was, in bustine waistcoat clean.
