bombazine

[bom-buh-zeen, bom-buh-zeen]

noun

a twill fabric constructed of a silk or rayon warp and worsted filling, often dyed black for mourning wear.

Also bombasine, bom·ba·zeen.

Origin of bombazine

1545–55; earlier bombasin < Middle French < Medieval Latin bombasinum, variant of bombȳcinum, noun use of neuter of Latin bombȳcinus silken < Greek bombȳ́kinos, equivalent to bombȳk-, stem of bómbȳx silkworm + -inos -ine¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for bombazine

Contemporary Examples of bombazine

Queen Victoria had the reputation of being a humorless, dour battleaxe, a Terminator in bombazine.
The Cult of Royal Porn
Tim Teeman
April 26, 2014

Historical Examples of bombazine

And what wonders of revelation in the bombazine pocket of the one and the sleeve of the other!
The Wedding Ring
T. De Witt Talmage
Bombazine, the silk and worsted stuff of which a lawyer's gown was made.
St. Ronan's Well
Sir Walter Scott
Here comes another with a sou'-wester and a bombazine cloak.
Moby Dick; or The Whale
Herman Melville
We were admitted by a very sour-looking female in bombazine.
St. Ives
Robert Louis Stevenson
Short, wrinkled and bent with age, she wore a bombazine gown of antique cut—its whilom black red-rusty from time's dye.
Four Years in Rebel Capitals
T. C. DeLeon

British Dictionary definitions for bombazine

bombazine

bombasine

noun

a twilled fabric, esp one with a silk warp and worsted weft, formerly worn dyed black for mourning

Word Origin for bombazine

C16: from Old French bombasin, from Latin bombӯcinus silken, from bombyx silkworm, silk; see bombacaceous

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for bombazine

(also bombasine, bambazine), 1550s, from French bombasin (14c.) "cotton cloth," from Medieval Latin bombacinium "silk texture," from Late Latin bombycinium, neuter of bombycinius "silken," from bombyx "silk, silkworm," from Greek bombyx. The post-classical transfer of the word from "silk" to "cotton" may reflect the perceived "silk-like" nature of the fabric, or a waning of familiarity with genuine silk in the European Dark Ages, but cf. bombast.