What does hask mean?
Hask is an obsolete English noun for a coarse cloth made from tow, the tangled fibers left after processing flax or hemp. In older usage, such cloth was suitable for sacks and other utilitarian objects, although “hask” was not restricted to one finished article. The term survives chiefly in dictionaries, historical records, and quotations, so modern speakers are likely to encounter it in older books or discussions of textile history. Its present value is chiefly historical: it preserves a precise vocabulary item for a rough cloth and illustrates how premodern English could name common materials more specifically than contemporary terms such as “sackcloth.” Although “hessian” can sometimes overlap with the same general range of coarse bag-making cloth, it is not simply another spelling of “hask.” In current prose, “tow cloth” or “sackcloth” will usually be clearer and more familiar. The word’s principal value today is therefore historical rather than conversational.
nounAn obsolete term for a coarse cloth made from tow. It was used for utilitarian purposes such as making sacks.
- A coarse cloth made from tow, especially suitable for making sacks.
"A roll of coarse hask lay beside the sacks in the storeroom."
"A roll of coarse hask lay beside the sacks in the storeroom."
"The merchant ordered enough hask to patch the warehouse sacks."
The plural is grammatically possible but rarely encountered because the term is obsolete and often appears in mass expressions such as “a piece of hask.”
"The warehouse inventory listed several hasks of coarse cloth."
“Hask” may look like a typo for “hash,” but it once named rough tow cloth—the utilitarian fabric behind countless sacks.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does hask come from?
Hask is an English textile term recorded in early modern usage for a coarse cloth made from tow. Its ultimate origin is uncertain, and it has no common modern English derivative family.
How hask is actually used
Obsolete and rare, surviving mainly in older English and historical records. In modern English, “tow cloth,” “sackcloth,” or the more specific “hessian” will usually be clearer.
Easily confused with hask
Hash is a mixture of chopped food, whereas hask was an old term for coarse tow cloth.
A husk is the dry outer covering of a grain or seed, whereas hask denoted a coarse textile fabric.