Floss

Silk embroidery on robe
MFA# 02.55

Description

1) A short, loosely twisted thread of Cotton or Silk used in embroidery and in the binding of single section pamphlets.

2) A strand of synthetic polymer, either Teflon® or nylon, produced commercially for cleaning teeth. The surface is usually coated with Wax. Unwaxed dental floss is used in conservation for cleaning narrow crevices.

Floss covered buttons
MFA# 43.1580

Synonyms and Related Terms

1) Zahnseide (Deut.); tandzijde (Ned.); tandtråd (Sven.); vloszijde (Ned); floretzijde (Ned);

2) dental floss; seda dental (Esp.)

Resources and Citations

• Rachael Perkins Arenstein, Lisa Goldberg, and Eugenie Milroy, ‘Support and Rehousing for Collection Storage’ In ‘Preventive Conservation: Collection Storage’ Lisa Elkin and Christopher A. Norris (eds.), Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, New York. 2019.

• Matt Roberts, Don Etherington, Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: a Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1982

• The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998

• Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floss (Accessed Nov. 2, 2005)