Obs. [Of doubtful etymology. Possibly the same word as prec., connected with the sense ‘down, nap,’ as being a sort of cloth on which the nap was left. Another suggestion would connect it with COT sb.2 as being perhaps made of cot-wool, or with med.L. cottum bed-quilt. But evidence is wanting.]
A woollen fabric of the nature of frieze, in the 16th and 17th c. largely manufactured in Lancashire, Westmoreland, and Wales (Manchester, Kendal, and Welsh cotton).
1523. Act 14–5 Hen. VIII., c. 11. Any Cottons or playne lininge or frise, made … in … Lancasshyre.
1552. Leland (Draper’s Dict.), Bolton-upon Moore market stondeth most by cottons and coarse yarne. Divers villages in the Moors about Bolton doe make cottons.
1580. R. Hitchcock, Pol. Plat, in Arb., Garner, II. 166. At Rouen in France … be sold our English wares, as Welsh and Manchester cottons.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 597. In it there is a great trafficke, especially of Welsh cottons of a slight and thinne webbe. Ibid., I. 746. This towne was of farre greater account … for certain wollen clothes there wrought and in great request commonly called Manchester Cottons.
1641. Heylin, Help to Hist. (1680), 387. Manchester Cottons being famous in all Drapers Shops.
1754. Bp. Pococke, Trav. (1889), II. 2. [Kendal manufactures] A sort of frieze call’d Cotton, at eight pence a yard … for the West Indies, for the use of the slaves.
1840. C. Nicholson, Ann. Kendal (1861), 241. ‘Kendal cotton’ at length became degraded to the use of horse-checks, floor-cloths, dusters, mops, [etc.].
attrib. 1503. Priv. Purse Exp. Eliz. of York (1830), 104 (Beck, Draper’s Dict.). For v yerdes of cotton russet … for the Quenes Chaare.
1585. Abp. Sandys, Serm. (1841), 155. A cotton coat, light for the one time and warm for the other.
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 98 (R.). The poorer sort do line their clothes with cotton-cloth, which is made of the finest wool they can pick out.
a. 1653. G. Daniel, Idyll, iv. 52. I can as well keep bare To a Cotton-Bench, as to a Velvet-Chaire.
