E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Lutestring.
A glossy silk; a corruption of the French word lustrine (from lustre).
1
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.
