# Calcutta Cloth?



## katon (Dec 25, 2006)

(1982 Southwick courtesy of Horace on Devil's Island)

Any idea what Calcutta Cloth might be? Was it a proprietary Southwick weave, or was it a regional variation on Madras from Calcutta (sort of a Harris tweed vs. Lewis tweed sort of thing)?


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## Mississippi Mud (Oct 15, 2009)

katon said:


> (1982 Southwick courtesy of Horace on Devil's Island)
> 
> Any idea what Calcutta Cloth might be? Was it a proprietary Southwick weave, or was it a regional variation on Madras from Calcutta (sort of a Harris tweed vs. Lewis tweed sort of thing)?


From the _OED_:

"calico: kæ;liko. Forms: . 6 (Cal3ecot), callicutt, 6-7 calecut, 6-8 calli-, calicut, 7 calicute, 7-8 callicot. . 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 Kolikodu, in Arabic Qaliqut, 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 Fr. 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.
2. 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."

The short end of it is "Calcutta Cloth" is calico or a brightly colored inexpensive cotton. Further confirmation of this can be found in Stephen Yaffa's tome _Big Cotton_.


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