Of uncertain (perhaps foreign) origin; byssos, i.e. Bleached linen (the cloth or a garment of it) -- (fine) linen (cloth).
1. linen cloth, especially that which was fine and costly, in which the bodies of the dead were wrapped: Matthew 27:59; Mark 15:46; Luke 23:53 (cf. Herodotus 2, 86 who says of the Egyptians, κατειλισσουσι πᾶν τό σῶμα σινδονος βυσσινης (see Wilkinson's note in Rawlinson's Herod. 3rd edition, the passage cited)).
2. thing made of fine cloth: so of a light and loose garment worn at night over the naked body, Mark 14:51f (others suppose a sheet rather than a shirt to be referred to; A. V. linen cloth; cf. B. D. American edition, under the word Sheets). (Besides Herodotus, the writers Sophocles, Thucydides, Strabo, Lucian, others use the word.)