fustian

"A major effect of junk politics — its ceaseless flood of patriotic, religious, macho and therapeutic fustian — is to pull position after position loose from reasoned foundations," DeMott noted.

The farthingale sleeve is made from a thick cotton material called fustian, stitched with 14 casings of linen each containing a hoop of baleen, also known as whalebone.

Welles’ “Macbeth,” while historically important for its bold auteur stamp, is similarly held back by theatrical fustian and bombast.

Yet, although Mantel adopts none of the archaic fustian of so many historical novels — the capital letters, the antique turns of phrase — her book feels firmly fixed in the 16th century.

And in due course, too, some lovely portrayals take fuller shape, of the adult students in the school and of the family of their headmaster, Hugh, played with authentically fustian authority by Bradley Armacost.