Plush
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Plush. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a general name given to fabrics of silk, flax, cotton, mohair, or wool woven with a pile deeper and less dense than that of velvet. Plush is used for upholstery purposes, for women's and children's coats, for men's silk hats, for draperies, curtains, and a variety of fancy articles. Plush is woven by means of wires in the same manner as velvet. A specially constructed loom, however, is now in use for weaving mohair plush. This loom produces two webs simultaneously. The two webs are of cotton warps and wefts, while a system of mohair warps is arranged between the two webs and woven into both. As the weaving advances a sharp knife runs between the two webs exactly in the center, separating the two pieces of cloth and leaving the standing pile on each. Plush undergoes careful finishing processes to render the pile lustrous. Mohair plush is one of the most, if not the most, durable fabric woven. See Velvet
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a shaggy pile cloth of various materials. An unshorn velvet of cotton, silk, or mixed fiber, sometimes of a silk nap and cotton back. It has two warps, one of which is brought to the surface to make the nap. The warp is gathered in loops by wire, and cut in the manner of velvet. It is composed regularly of a woof of a single woolen thread and a double warp; the one wool of two threads twisted, the other goat's or camel's hair. Some imitation plushes are made of other materials. SIR HORACE C. PLUNKETT
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The weaving Aiton's described in 1910 — two cotton webs woven face to face with a mohair warp between them, split down the middle by a running knife — is still the basis of pile-fabric manufacture, but the fibre has almost entirely changed: the silk, mohair and wool of these accounts have given way to polyester, acrylic and nylon since the mid-20th century, and much modern plush is knitted or tufted rather than wire-woven. The uses have moved too. Men's silk hats, which Aiton's lists first among plush's applications, are now a costume item, while mohair plush survives mainly as an expensive specialist cloth for restoring vintage railway carriages, cars and antique teddy bears. In ordinary English the word has also shifted from the cloth to the object: since Steiff's jointed bears of the early 1900s, a "plush" now most often means a stuffed toy, and "plush" as an adjective for luxury has largely swallowed the textile sense.
Written for this edition, 2026.