Cameline

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

  1. A type of fabric made from fine flax fibers used historically for clothing and household textiles; an ancient textile material produced from the fibers of the cameline plant for garments and linens; a traditional woven cloth derived from flax fiber, employed in making apparel and domestic fabrics
  2. A textile material woven from flax fibers known for smooth texture and durability, used in historical garments and linens; a fabric consisting of spun flax threads, valued in past eras for clothing and household textile products; a fine linen fiber fabric made from cameline flax, utilized in making vintage apparel and home textiles
  3. A cloth produced from the plant flax, admired for its strength and smooth quality, used widely for clothing and linen in earlier times; a material crafted from fibers of a flax variety that is woven into fabric primarily for garments and household use; linen fabric fashioned from cameline flax plants, historically common in clothing and linen manufacture

Etymology: Cameline is a word that sounds like it should mean something to do with camels, and that is exactly where it starts. Its Latin source, "camelinus", means "of a camel" or "camel-coloured", and the name was applied to a coarse cloth in medieval Europe. Such cloth was traditionally made from camel hair, which is why the link to the animal persisted even after the fabric itself changed. Here the surprise is that the word was later used for something quite different. In English the term came to name a fabric made from flax, the plant whose fibres also give us linen, rather than from the animal hair it first described. The name stayed attached to the cloth while the material beneath it changed. The word reached English in Middle English, borrowed through Anglo-French "camelin" and Continental French "chamelin", which had themselves grown out of the Latin adjective. Its many spelling variants in medieval English, such as "camelyn" and "kamelyne", show how unsettled the spelling was before it became fixed.

Synonyms: camelina, false flax