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I'm looking for a way to describe striped cloth — that is, with regular stripes all over, or like the stripes on the flag of the USA.

I'm well aware of the stripe on a toga, angusticlavus, etc. But is it appropriate to use clavus in the general sense, or is there a better word? I have considered striatum, but am not sure that I'm exactly on the right track. Or am I missing something obvious?

My dictionary offers four options for "striped":

• Virgatus "striped" (has been used for striped clothing, at least in
  poetry and post-classically)




• Virgulatus "striped" (seems to be very similar to virgatus but less
  frequent)

Both of these are from virga "twig", which was also used to mean "stripe" in clothing (II C).

• Ostreatus (striped or ridged like an oyster shell: doesn't seem to have been used to describe a pattern in clothing)




• Striatus (more like furrowed, from stria "furrow": doesn't seem to have been used for clothing)

From biological Latin, I would suggest striātus, -a, -um. While it literally means "fluted" or "furrowed", it's is the word I've most often seen for "striped" in scientific names: for example, the "striped pondweed" is Stuckenia striata, the "striped bladderwort" is Utricularia striata, and the "striped snakehead" (a type of fish) is Channa striata.

In the Corpus Christi Alea Evangelii there is a playing piece which is coloured differently. This is sometimes translated 'speckled,' sometimes 'striped.' "Now we pass the variegated man..."

"Varium nunc transgrediamur virum . et postea Marcus in trianguli
primo angulo ..."

In the same description of a board game the ranks and files are called 'trames.' A word borrowed from weaving. Transmeo is the verb.

.X. et .VIII. tramites in longitudine 18 ranks in length.
singuli per singulos tramites, one by one across the separate ranks.

toga alba, nigrore transmente a white toga woven across with black.

I had misremembered 'trames;' I thought it meant a furrow. And perhaps that would be a better metaphor:

toga candida et nigra sulcatim. A toga, furrowed black and white.

The most common words I have found for striped are virgatus, varius, and striatus, used for all sorts of stripes including those on clothing. But this is only what others have already posted.

My small contribution, then, is to address your question specifically about clavus, or rather clavatus. I have found one reference in which this is used unambiguously for stripes on material yet which does not seem to be linked to the purple stripes of consuls etc.

uxorem gemmis uti non est passus. auro clavatis vestibus idem
interdixit.

He did not permit his wife to use jewels and also forbade her to wear
garments with gold stripes.

Historia Augusta, Tacitus, 11