Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—L

Lutestring

A glossy silk; a corruption of the French word lustrine (from lustre).

To speak in lutestring.
Flash, highly-polished oratory. The expression was first used in Junius. Shakespeare has “taffeta phrases and silken terms precise.” We call inflated speech “fustian” (q.v.) or “bombast” (q.v.); say a man talks stuff; term a book or speech made up of other men's brains, shoddy (q.v.); sailors call telling a story “spinning a yarn,” etc. etc.

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