Forms: 5 chamlyt, chamelet(t, 5–6 chamlett, 5–7 cham(e)lot, 6 chambelot, 6–7 chamblet(t, 6–8 chamlet, 6–9 camblet, 7 chamolet, camelott, camlott, 7–8 camelot, 7– camlet. [app. immediately from French: Littré cites chamelot 13th c., camelot 16th c.; Cotgr. translates F. camelot, ‘chamlet’; Du Cange has med.L. camelotum; Anglo-French statutes of Edward IV. have chamelett, and the spelling with cham- was the prevalent one in English till after the Restoration. The ultimate origin is obscure; at the earliest known date the word was associated (by Europeans) with camel, as if stuff made of camel’s hair; but there is reason to think it was originally the Arabic khamlat, from khaml; Marco Polo (ed. Yule), I. 248 (Skeat). Khaml, khamlat, is explained by Lane as ‘the nap or pile or villous substance on the surface of cloth’; khamlat, by Johnson, as ‘camelot, silk and camel’s hair, also, all silk or velvet, especially pily and plushy.’ According to Littré, the Journal officiel of 1874, p. 3220/1, says camelot is so called from the Arabic seil el kemel, the Angora goat; cf. CAMEL-YARN.]
A name originally applied to some beautiful and costly eastern fabric, afterwards to imitations and substitutes the nature of which has changed many times over. ‘A kind of stuff originally made by a mixture of silk and camel’s hair; it is now made with wool and silk’ (J.). ‘A light stuff, formerly much used for female apparel, made of long wool, hard spun, sometimes mixed in the loom with cotton or linen yarn’ (Ure). It is uncertain whether it was ever made of camel’s hair; but in the 16th and 17th c. it was made of the hair of the Angora goat.
According to Beck, Draper’s Dict., ‘In [the] production [of camlets], the changes have been rung with all materials in nearly every possible combination; sometimes of wool, sometimes of silk, sometimes of hair, sometimes of hair with wool or silk, at others of silk and wool warp and hair woof…. Those of our day have had cotton and linen introduced into their composition. They have been made plain and twilled, of single warp and weft, of double warp, and sometimes with double weft also.’
c. 1400. Epiph. (Turnb., 1843), 114. Wer ther of gold any clothes fownde … Or was ther any chamlyt or satyn.
a. 1413. Inv. Wardrobe Hen. IV. (Draper’s Dict.), Seven yards of red chamlett at 13s. 4d. the remnant.
1423. James I., Kingis Q., clvii. There sawe I … For chamelot, the camel full of hare.
1472. Act 12 Edw. IV., iii. Satens Sarcenetz & Tarterons Chamelettis & autres Draps de soie, & dore & soie.
1532–3. Act 24 Hen. VIII., xiii. Silke, chamblet, or taffata.
1578. Florio, 1st Fruites, 10. I wil buy … Velvet, Grograyne, Satten, Makadowe, Chambelot.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 15. Natolia affoording great store of Chamolets and Grogerams.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 146. Some of rich gold or siluer Chamlets, and other of cloth of gold and Tinselled.
1635. Swan, Spec. M. (1670), 398. Camblet … of Camels hair as some do affirm.
1644. Evelyn, Diary (1871), 64. I went to see their manufactures in silke, their pressing and watering the grograms and chambletts.
1680. Morden, Geog. Rect. (1685), 327. Famous … for good Chamlets.
1714. Gay, Trivia, I. 46. Show’rs soon drench the Camlet’s cockled Grain.
1727. De Foe, Eng. Tradesm., xxvi. (1841), I. 266. Camlets from Norwich.
1756. Nugent, Gr. Tour, I. 98. Here [Leyden] they make … camblets, tho’ inferior to those of Great Britain.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., II. 35. Stuffs made from the hair of [the Angora goat] are well known among us by the name of camlet.
1812. J. Smyth, Pract. Customs, 256. Mohair … is commonly imported ready spun, and is woven into camblets.
1815. Elphinstone, Acc. Caubul (1842), II. 87. The tents … are of a kind of black blanket, or rather of coarse black camlet.
b. Watered (water) camlet: camlet with a wavy or watered surface; cf. Fr. camelot à ondes (Cotgr.).
1596. Spenser, F. Q., IV. xi. 45. Wav’d upon, like water chamelot.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 228. The waued water Chamelot, was from the beginning esteemed the richest and brauest wearing.
1624. Bacon, New Atl. (1650), 3. A Gowne … of a kinde of Water Chamolet, of an excellent Azure Colour.
1658. Rowland, trans. Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 961. Wings as if it were watered Chamblet.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills (1872), VI. 95. A watered Camlet Gown she had.
c. A garment made of camlet. Also fig.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., V. iv. 93. You i’ th’ Chamblet, get vp o’ th’ raile.
1648. Herrick, Hesper., I. 64. Cloath’d in her chamlets of delight.
1847. L. Hunt, Men, Women, & B., II. xi. 272. To see and be seen in his new camlet.
d. attrib.
1526. Lanc. Wills (1854), I. 13. My chamlett kyrtell.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Wom. Prize, V. i. His camblet breeches.
1662. Pepys, Diary, 6 March. This night my new camelott riding coate … came home.
1696. Bp. Patrick, Comm. Exod. xxvi. (ed. 2), 507. These Camlet Curtains (as I may call them [of Goats’ hair]).
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, I. 5. The women … in long white camblet clokes.
1847. L. Hunt, Men, Women, & B., 271. His black camlet cloak with silver buttons.
e. Comb., as camlet-maker; camlet-mingled adj.; also camlet-fly, a fly with mottled wings.
1658. Rowland, trans. Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 969. Nature bred this with a chamblet mingled coloured coat.
1676. Cotton, Angler, II. 335. In the middle of May [comes in] the Camlet-fly.
1750. Beawes, Lex Mercat. (1752), 686. Of the aforesaid Wool, the Camblet-makers alone take 80000 lb.
