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bombazine

 
Dictionary: bom·ba·zine   (bŏm'bə-zēn') pronunciation
n.
A fine twilled fabric of silk and worsted or cotton, often dyed black and used for mourning clothes.

[French bombasin, from Medieval Latin bambacīnum, cotton fabric, from bombax, bombac-, cotton, from Latin bombȳx, silk, silkworm, from Greek bombūx, silkworm.]


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Bombazine, or bombasine, is a fabric originally made of silk or silk and wool, and now also made of cotton and wool or of wool alone. Quality bombazine is made with a silk warp and a worsted weft. It is twilled or corded and used for dress-material. Black bombazine was once used largely for mourning wear, but the material had gone out of fashion by the beginning of the 20th century.

The word is derived from the obsolete French bombasin, applied originally to silk but afterwards to tree-silk or cotton. Bombazine is said to have been made in England in Elizabeth I’s reign, and early in the 19th century it was largely made at Norwich.

It is also the name of Bombazine Island which is off the Maine coast in Casco Bay.

References

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.


 
 
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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Bombazine" Read more