Also 6 boffeta, 6–8 bafta, 9 baftah [Prob. a. Pers. baft, wrought, woven.] A kind of coarse and cheap (generally cotton) fabric, originally of oriental manufacture, but now made in Great Britain for export, especially to Africa.
1598. W. Phillips, Linschoten’s Trav. Ind., 18. Cotton Linnen of various sorts … Boffetas.
1612. Purchas, Pilgr., I. 347. Baftas or white Callicos.
1722. Lond. Gaz., No. 6079/7. A Parcel of … Pelongs, Cuttanees, chequer’d Bafts, Nillaes, etc.
1779. Forrest, Voy. N. Guinea, 106. They purchase blue and red baftaes from the Chinese.
1845. Stocqueler, Handbk. Brit. India (1854), 195. Some silk manufactories here [Bhaugulpore] … produce a coarse stuff, called baftah.
1876. R. Burton, Gorilla L., I. 155. Blue baft from which the stiffening has been washed out.
