Dictionary:

buckram

  (bŭk'rəm)

1. A coarse cotton fabric heavily sized with glue, used for stiffening garments and in bookbinding.
2. Archaic. Rigid formality.

Resembling or suggesting buckram, as in stiffness or formality: “a wondrous buckram style” (Thomas Carlyle).

To stiffen with or as if with buckram.

[Middle English bukeram, fine linen, from Old French boquerant and from Old Italian bucherame, both after Bukhara (Bukhoro), from which fine linen was once imported.]

adjective

So rigidly constrained, formal, or awkward as to lack all grace and spontaneity: starchy, stiff, stilted, wooden. See flexible/rigid.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: a coarse cotton fabric stiffened with glue; used in bookbinding and to stiffen clothing

The verb buckram has one meaning:

Meaning #1: stiffen with or as with buckram

The adjective buckram has one meaning:

Meaning #1: rigidly formal
  Synonyms: starchy, stiff

This article is about the cloth. For Buckrams (Allium ursinum), see Ramsons.

Buckram is available in many colors.

Buckram is a stiff cloth, made of cotton or linen, which is used to cover, and protect, a book. Buckram can also be used to stiffen clothes.

Buckram can be dull or shiny.

In the Middle Ages, "bokeram" was fine cotton cloth, not stiff, the name derived from Bokhara, where it originally came from.^[1]

Millinery buckram is different from bookbinding buckram. It is impregnated with a starch, which allows it to be softened in water, pulled over a hat block, and left to dry into a hard shape. White buckram is most commonly used in hatmaking, though black is available as well. Millinery buckram comes in three weights: baby buckram (often used for children's and dolls' hats), single-ply buckram, and double buckram (also known as "theatrical crown").

References

1. ^ Donald King in Jonathan Alexander & Paul Binski (eds), Age of Chivalry, Art in Plantagenet England, 1200-1400, p157, Royal Academy/Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London 1987

See also

• Bookbinding

Fabric
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Related:	Dyeing · Fiber · History of textiles · History of silk · Knitting · Terminology · Manufacturing · Preservation · Weaving · Yarn

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