strong. coarsely woven cloth made from fibers of jute. flax. hemp. or synthetic fibers; also referred to as Hessian.
Hessian (UK: /ˈhɛsiən/, US: /ˈhɛʃən/), burlap in North America, or crocus in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean, is a woven fabric made of vegetable fibres, usually the skin of the jute plant or sisal leaves. It is generally used (in the crude tow form known as gunny) for duties of rough handling, such as making sacks employed to ship farm products and to act as covers for sandbags (although woven plastics now often serve these purposes), and for wrapping tree-root balls. However, this dense woven fabric, historically coarse, more recently[when?] is being produced in a refined state, known simply as jute, as an eco-friendly material for bags, rugs, and other products.
The name "hessian" is attributed to the historic use of the fabric as part of the uniform of soldiers from the former Landgraviate of Hesse (1264–1567) and its successors, who were called Hessians. Hessian cloth comes in different types of construction, form, size and color.
The origin of the word burlap is uncertain, though it appeared as early as the late 17th century. Its etymology is speculated to derive from the Middle English borel ('coarse cloth'), the Old French burel and/or the Dutch boeren ('coarse'), in the latter case perhaps interfused with boer ('peasant'). The second element is the Dutch word lap, 'piece of cloth'.