One way to hold this word: think of the tiny loose fibres that come off cloth. They are small, they are soft, and they end up somewhere you did not put them. Depending on who is looking at them, the same little fibres are rubbish to be cleaned away, material to be collected and used, or a crop to be sold.
From the word’s history
From Middle English lynet, linet, from Old French linette (grain of flax), a diminutive of lin (flax); or from Medieval Latin linteum, from Latin linum (flax). The word has meant fine fibre from cloth from the start.
來自中古英語 lynet、linet，再往前是古法文 linette（亞麻籽），是 lin（亞麻）的小詞；另一條路線是中世紀拉丁文 linteum、拉丁文 līnum（亞麻）。這個字從一開始講的就是布料上的細纖維。
Wiktionary entry lint, etymology 1 and 2 (packet evidence, source_refs kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:971090527 and 971108531)
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