Pulicat

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A large brackish lagoon and fishing town on the Coromandel coast of southeastern India, north of Chennai
2. Pulicat is a coastal lagoon and small town lying on the southeastern shore of India in Tamil Nadu
3. The name of a shallow brackish lake and historic fishing settlement on the east coast of India near Chennai

Etymology: Pulicat is a town on the Coromandel coast of southeastern India, and its name became a term for cloth. European traders bought the lightweight cotton textiles made and traded there, and the fabric took the town's name, so a pulicat came to mean a kind of cotton cloth, often a handkerchief. The town's name is usually traced to the Tamil "Pazhaverkadu," though the exact path from that name to the European form is uncertain. The European trade is what carried the term into English. The Dutch East India Company established a settlement at Pulicat, and Dutch and English merchants shipped its textiles to Europe, where they were sold under the place name. The term therefore records a commercial chain: an Indian town, a trade route, and a product named for where it was bought rather than for who made it.