Chintz is a cotton cloth, usually smooth and a little shiny because it is often glazed, printed with busy flowers — roses, vines, birds. In British and older American homes it became the classic stuff for curtains, sofas, and cushions: pretty, a bit country-house, a bit grandmother. You buy it by the metre in a fabric shop, not as a piece of clothing. The English word was borrowed from Hindi chī̃ṭ, a spotted or printed cotton. Though actually, English later grew the adjective chintzy, and that word now usually means cheap and a bit tasteless, not “made of this cloth.” The fabric itself is not an insult; the later slang walked away from it.