Calicot

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A plain-woven cotton fabric featuring small, repeated floral or geometric patterns often used for quilting and dressmaking
2. A type of inexpensive cotton cloth characterized by a simple weave and printed with tiny, colorful designs commonly utilized in clothing and crafts
3. A cotton textile known for its lightweight, printed motifs and affordability, frequently employed in garment and home textile production

Etymology: Calicot comes from Calicut, the port on the Malabar Coast of southwestern India, which Europeans knew as a centre of cotton weaving. Cloth shipped from there was called calicut or calico in English, and the word travelled through the Portuguese and Spanish trade networks before reaching English. The name points to the place of origin rather than to any quality of the fabric itself. The French form "calicot" is the version used here, and it kept the sense of plain, inexpensive cotton cloth. In French the word came to stand for a cheap, coarse fabric sold in quantity, and this sense is what the English noun carries when it refers to printed cotton.

Synonyms: calico, cotton fabric, printed cotton