Hebrew word · H330

אֵטוּן

'etun

fine linen

Linen yarn or fine linen thread or fabric. It occurs only here. It is widely taken as a word borrowed from Egyptian, often linked with an Egyptian term for a fine linen, and possibly connected with Greek othonē, 'fine linen'.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated November 14, 2026

What it means

linen, yarn, thread

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Proverbs 7:16

Range of meaning: Linen yarn or fine linen thread or fabric. It occurs only here. It is widely taken as a word borrowed from Egyptian, often linked with an Egyptian term for a fine linen, and possibly connected with Greek othonē, 'fine linen'.
Against the English: KJV has 'fine linen', WEB 'yarn', YLT 'cotton', BSB 'linen'. 'Cotton' is wrong. This is flax linen, the fabric Egypt was famous for.
How it drifted: YLT's 'cotton' probably came from an older guess based on the Greek 'othonē'. Egypt's textile fame rested on linen.
Used elsewhere in the period: Ezekiel 27:7 mentions 'fine linen with embroidered work from Egypt' as a luxury trade good. Isaiah 19:9 mentions Egypt's workers in combed flax. Egyptian tombs have yielded very fine linen.

Where it appears

Proverbs · 1

Proverbs 7:16 אֵט֥וּן linen of

I have decked my bed with coverings, with colored linen from Egypt.

Here: Found only here. It is probably a word borrowed from Egyptian for a fine linen thread or fabric. It says what the patterned coverlets are made of: imported, high-quality linen.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.