Lint
late Middle English lynnet ‘flax prepared for spinning’, perhaps from Old French linette ‘linseed’, from lin ‘flax’.
wiktionary
From Middle English lynet, linet, from Old French linette(“grain of flax”), diminutive of lin(“flax”); or, from Medieval Latin linteum, from Latin līnum(“flax”).
From the lint Unix utility, written in 1979, which analyses programs written in the C language, [1] itself named after the undesirable bits of fiber and fluff found in sheep's wool (see etymology 1).
etymonline
lint (n.)
late 14c., "flax prepared for spinning," also "refuse of flax used as kindling," somehow from the source of Old English lin "flax" (see linen). Perhaps from or by influence of French linette "grain of flax," diminutive of lin "flax," from Latin linum "flax, linen;" Klein suggests from Latin linteum "linen cloth," neuter of adjective linteus.
Later "flocculent flax refuse used as tinder or for dressing wounds" (c. 1400). Still used for "flax" in Scotland in Burns' time. Applied to stray cotton fluff from 1610s, though in later use this is said to be American English.
