A type of thin, lightweight fabric or possibly a camel-hair garment, historically used in warmer climates.
Possibly derived from camel or related to Eastern textile names. The word may have traveled through trade routes, with origins in languages describing the material or animal sources of the fabric.
The spice trade wasn't the only thing traveling along trade routes—words for exotic fabrics went too, and historians often can't figure out exactly which textile a medieval word refers to because the names got mixed up!
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