Camlets

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A sturdy cloth traditionally made from wool or a blend of fibers, finished with a characteristic rippled or watered pattern on its surface
2. A durable woven textile with a lustrous, wavelike finish created through pressing or calendering, historically used for garments and furnishings
3. A fabric featuring a distinctive undulating or moire effect, typically produced from wool or mixed fibers and valued for its decorative appearance

Etymology: "Camlets" is the plural of "camlet," a fabric whose name tells a story about trade routes. The root is the Arabic "khamla," meaning velvet, which passed into Old French as "chamelot" with the diminutive "-ot" attached. Middle English then took it up as "chamelet" and "chamlot," so the word traveled from the Arabic-speaking world through French into English. The surprise is that the cloth itself was not velvet at all. Camlet was a fine woven material, and in its early English use it was often made from wool, camel hair, or silk, sometimes in combination. The name stuck to the cloth even as its actual fibers varied, a common pattern when a trade name outlives the product it first described.