The Word of the Day come from "The Returns" by Philip Salom. It is longlisted for the 2020 Miles Franklin Award.
BATIK
NOUN batiks (plural noun)
a method (originally used in Java) of producing coloured designs on textiles by dyeing them, having first applied wax to the parts to be left undyed. "a visual artist specializing in batik" · "batik scarves"
cloth that has been dyed using the batik method. "fine art batiks"
ORIGIN late 19th century: from Javanese, literally ‘painted’.
Batik is an Indonesian technique of wax-resist dyeing applied to whole cloth. This technique originated from Java, Indonesia. Batik is made either by drawing dots and lines of the resist with a spouted tool called a tjanting, or by printing the resist with a copper stamp called a cap. The applied wax resists dyes and therefore allows the artisan to colour selectively by soaking the cloth in one colour, removing the wax with boiling water, and repeating if multiple colours are desired.