tissue [LME] An Old French word that goes back to Latin texere ‘to weave’, the source of *text. Tissue was originally a rich material often interwoven with gold or silver threads. From the idea of woven material came the notion of an intricate, connected series in phrases such as a tissue of lies [E17th]. The biological sense is from the mid 19th century. The early 20th-century disposable paper hankie developed from tissue paper, which has been shortened to tissue since the late 18th century.