calico
(ˈkælɪkəʊ)
Forms: α. 6 (Calȝecot), callicutt, 6–7 calecut, 6–8 calli-, calicut, 7 calicute, 7–8 callicot. β. 6 kalyko, calyco, calocowe, (callaga, -ca), 6–8 callico(e, 7–8 calicoe, 7– calico.
[In 16–17th c. also calicut, from the name of the Indian city (sense 1), called in Malayâlam Kō{ldotbl}ikōḍu, in Arabic Qaliqūt, med.L. (Conti) Collicuthia, Pg. Qualecut (V. de Gama), Calecut (Camoens). It is not clear how the form calico, occurring in 1540 as kalyko, arose; it may have been merely an English corruption; the F. calicot has been suggested as the intermediate form, but the age of this is uncertain.]
1. The name of a city on the coast of Malabar; in the 16th c. the chief port, next to Goa, of intercourse between India and Europe; used attrib. in Calicut-cloth, Calico-cloth: see next.
| α [c 1505 Dunbar Warldis Instabilitie 62 It micht have cuming in schortar quhyll Fra Calȝecot and the new-fund Yle.] 1541 (July) Lett. Credence of T. Bellenden fr. Jas. V to Hen. VIII, IX peces of Callicutt claith pertenyng to ane William Blaky in Leith. 1589 Hakluyt Voy. (1886) I. 3 Of silke and linnen wouen together, resembling something Callicut cloth. ― Voy. (1599) II. i. Ep. Ded., Lapped vp almost an hundred fold in fine calicut-cloth. |
| β 1540 Lanc. Wills (1860) II. 151 A surplyse and an elne kalyko cloth. [1547 Boorde Introd. Knowl. 142 The newe founde land named Calyco.] 1549 Will. L. ap Rhes (Somerset Ho.) Calocowe clothe. 1605 E. Scot in Middleton's Voy. (Hakl. Soc.) App. iii. 165 (Y.) They [the Javanese] weare a kinde of Callico-cloth. |
2. Hence:
a. orig. A general name for cotton cloth of all kinds imported from the East (see
quot. 1753); ‘an Indian stuff made of cotton, sometimes stained with gay and beautiful colours’ (J.); subsequently, also, various cotton fabrics of European manufacture (sometimes also with linen warp).
b. Now, in England, applied chiefly to plain white unprinted cotton cloth, bleached or unbleached (called in Scotland and
U.S. cotton).
c. in
U.S. to printed cotton cloth, coarser than muslin.
| a. 1622–62 Heylin Cosmogr. iii. (1682) 205 A Smock of Calicute, a kind of linnen cloth here made, and from hence so called. 1678 Tavernier's Voy. Kingd. Tonquin xiii. 43 Blue Calicuts. Ibid., Relat. Japon 58 Chites or painted Calicuts which they call calmendar. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 349/1 Dowlas, Scotch Cloth, Callicot. 1758 Ellis in Phil. Trans. L. 453 Callicuts are painted with the juice of this shrub. 1789 Coxe Trav. Switz. I. 30 Their manufactures are coarse callicots and muslins. |
| b. 1578 Invent. in Drapers' Dict. 42, iiij yards of Callaga, 6s. 4d. xij yards of Callaca, 12s. 1590 Webbe Trav. (Arb.) 31 Fine Lawne or Callico thrust down my throate. 1616 Trav. Eng. Pilgr. in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) III. 326 A camel, laden with callicoes. 1665 G. Havers P. della Valle's Trav. E. Ind. 31 A very great Trade of fine Cotton Cloth or Callico. 1666 Pepys Diary 24 Sept., Flags, which I had bought for the Navy, of Calico. 1714 Fr. Bk. Rates 230 The Arrest..forbidding the Sale or Consumption of painted Callicoes from the East-Indies, or such as are printed or painted at Home. 1719 J. Roberts Spinster 347 A tawdry, pie-spotted, flabby, ragged, low-priced thing, called Callicoe..made..by a parcel of Heathens and Pagans, that worship the Devil, and work for a half penny a day. 1740 Johnson Drake Wks. IV. 452 Dressed in white cotton or calicoe. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., Callicoes are of divers kinds, plain, printed, painted, stain'd, dyed, chints, muslins, and the like. 1774 Act 14 Geo. III, iii, Instead of the Word Callico, which stands for foreign Callicoes, each piece may be marked with the words British Manufacture. 1860 J. W. Warter Sea Board & Down II. 22 The wind sounded like the tearing of calico. 1875 Ure Dict. Arts I. 579 It was easy for needy adventurers to buy printed calicoes. Ibid. II. 565 Hung with black lustreless calico. |
| c. 1841–44 Emerson Ess. Prudence Wks. (Bohn) I. 99 Calicoes [cannot] go out of fashion..in the few swift moments..the Yankee suffers..them to remain in his possession. 1863 Life in South II. 293 Cotton-prints..called ‘calicoes’ in America, for dresses. 1872 B. Harte Prose & P. I. 40 The furniture was extemporized from packing cases..and covered with gay calico. |
3. simple attrib. (or
adj.)
a. Of calico (
cf. sense 1).
calico ball, a ball where the ladies wear only cotton dresses.
| 1612 Rates (Scotl.) 294 (Y.) Calico copboord claiths, the piece..xls. 1641 Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 24 The men, wearing a large calico mantle yellow coloured. 1796 Campaigns, 1793–4 I. ii. ii. 101 Callicoe sheets keep us decently warm. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. xviii. 141 Flaunting in a calico shirt and a pair of silk stockings from Moorshedabad. |
b. Coloured in a way suggestive of printed calico; variegated, piebald. Chiefly of horses. Also as
n., a calico horse.
U.S.| 1807 W. Irving Salmag. 24 Nov. 372 Bantering nature fairly out of countenance—representing her tricked out in all the tawdry finery of copper skies, purple rivers, calico rocks, red grass, [etc.]. 1812 ― Hist. N.Y. (ed. 2) II. vii. iii. 182 Behold..Van Corlear, mounted on a..calico mare. a 1861 T. Winthrop Canoe & Saddle (1883) x. 144 A hundred horses, roans, calicos..blacks and whites. 1878 B. F. Taylor Between Gates 207 There would be scant room for the calico horses to canter. 1954 J. Potts Go, Lovely Rose (1955) ix. 60 Havelka's calico cat..was taking a fastidious stroll. |
4. Comb., as
calico-glazer,
calico-making,
calico-smoother,
calico-trade,
calico-weaving;
calico-bush, the American mountain laurel (
Kalmia latifolia);
calico-diaper (see
quot.);
† calico-lawn, ? a fine quality of calico, lawn of calico or cotton;
calico-printer, one whose trade is calico-printing;
calico-printing, the art or trade of producing a pattern on calico by printing in colours, in mordants which produce colours on being dyed, or by other process.
| 1814 F. Pursh Flora Amer. Sept. I. 297 Kalmia latifolia..called Laurel or in the mountains *Callico-bush. 1829 Loudon Encycl. Plants 356 Kalmia latifolia, Calico-bush. 1914 L. H. Bailey Standard Cycl. Hort. II. 627/2 Calico bush: Kalmia. 1969 Hay & Synge Dict. Garden Plants 314/1 Kalmia (Ericaceae) latifolia. Mountain Laurel, Calico Bush. |
| 1696 J. F. Merchant's Wareho. 12 *Callico-Diaper..called so by reason it is made of Cotton, as the Callicoes are, and is wrought into little figures. |
| 1723 Lond. Gaz. No. 6196/7 Mathew Bacon..*Callico-Glazer. 1809 A. Stewart in Lockhart Scott (1839) III. 180 Breaking into the workshop of Peter More, calico-glazer, Edinburgh. |
| ? 1592 Descr. Carrack Madre de Dios (Y.) The calicos were book-calicos, *calico launes, broad white calicos, fine starched calicos, coarse white calicos, browne coarse calicos. 1683 Lond. Gaz. No. 1791/4 Two striped Muslins or Callico Lawnes. |
| 1859 Smiles Self-Help 36 Robert Peel..began the domestic trade of *calico-making. |
| 1706 Lond. Gaz. No. 4264/4 William Shirwin..*Callico-Printer. 1854 Mrs. Gaskell North & S. xix, One of the half-dozen calico-printers of the time. |
| 1753 Hanway Trav. (1762) II. i. iii. 15 Sugar-baking and *callicoe-printing are the great articles. 1867 N. & Q. Ser. iii. XI. 186/1 In 1676 Calico printing..was invented and practised in London. |
| 1762 Gentl. Mag. 6 We have obstructed them in the *callico trade. |