A type of decorating fabric with a repeated pattern depicting a pastoral scene, typically printed in one color on a white or off-white background.
From French 'toile' meaning simply 'cloth' or 'canvas,' from Latin 'tela' (web, loom). The surprise is that 'toile' originally just meant any basic cloth — it was the most generic fabric word possible! The specific meaning of scenic pastoral patterns developed in 18th-century France when 'toile de Jouy' (cloth of Jouy, a town near Versailles) became fashionable. What started as the French equivalent of saying 'fabric' became the name for an entire decorative style.
The fancy toile curtains with their romantic pastoral scenes get their name from the French word that originally just meant 'any old piece of cloth.' It's like if the English word 'fabric' somehow evolved to mean specifically floral chintz — toile went from being the most generic textile term to describing one very specific decorative style beloved by interior designers.
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