bast

Etymology

From Middle English bast, from Old English bæst (“bast, inner bark of trees from which ropes were made”), from Proto-Germanic *bastaz (“bast, rope”) (compare the Swedish bast, Dutch bast, German Bast), perhaps an alteration of Proto-Indo-European *bʰask-, *bʰasḱ- (“bundle”) (compare Middle Irish basc (“necklace”), Latin fascis (“bundle”), Albanian bashkë (“tied, linked”)).

noun

1. Fibre made from the phloem of certain plants and used for matting and cord.
   [T]here would be seen his face, or that of his elder brother, peering down. A guttural sound, and the tip-tap of bast slippers beating the narrow wooden stairs, and he would stand before one without coat, a little bent, in leather apron, with sleeves turned back, blinking[…] 1912, John Galsworthy, Quality
   I thought I saw Him in the Long Walk there, by the bed of Nelly Roche, tending a fallen flower with a wisp of bast. 1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 87
   He had taken along a long bast rope in his sleigh, since it was the custom on longer journeys to have a spare rope in case the reins needed mending. 1997, ‘Egil's Saga’, translated by Bernard Scudder, The Sagas of Icelanders, Penguin, published 2001, page 145