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@RustyRing @ai6yr @dharmadan Perhaps more accurately...burlap is what the fabric has been called in English for many centuries (it was "borel" in Middle English.) "Hessian" came into being in England much later slang for the same fabric, likely 1800ish, supposedly a fabric associated with soldiers from Hessen-Kassel, the Hessians.

The word burlap remained in use in the US and Canada. It is not an Americanism, and it remains common worldwide.