Now only arch. or Hist. Also 6 stamele, -ill, ? erron. stanel(l, 6–7 stamel(l, stammell. [Corresponds to F. estamel (1611 in Godef.), mod. dial. estamelle, either f. estame + -el, -elle, or f. estamine STAMIN, by substitution of suffix; cf. the OF. synonyms estamet, estamot, formed with other dim. suffixes. The Eng. word may be a. F. estamel(le (though recorded earlier), but it may be an independent alteration of STAMIN.]
1. A coarse woollen cloth, or linsey-woolsey, usually dyed red; an undergarment of this material, worn by ascetics. Cf. STAMIN.
1530. Palsgr., 275/1. Stamell fyne worstede, estamine.
1534. in Lett. Suppress. Monasteries (Camden), 16. Another that had betyn hym zelfe so with roddes that his stamell was blody.
1542. Boorde, Dyetary, viii. (1870), 249. In sommer use to were a skarlet petycote made of stamele or lynsye-wolsye.
1552. Invent. Churches Surrey, 58. Item one cope of red stamill.
1606. Chapman, Mons. D’Olive, II. i. Changeable creatures … now in Satten, To morrow next in Stammell.
1621. G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., XII. (1626), 239. Like a bull … Whose dreadfull hornes the stammell, which prouokes His furie, tosse with still deluded strokes.
1623. Cockeram, Dict., III. Cutchoneale,… wherewith Stammell is died.
1665. Brathwait, Comm. Chaucer, 10. His Table with Stammel, or some other Carpet, [was] neatly covered.
fig. 1631. J. Taylor (Water P.), Sudden Turn Fortune’s Wheel, Advt. to Rdr. Knowinge the cause to be good, I adventured to piece a scarlet roabe with my coarse stammell; and though my lines are farr short of the other in elocution and ornate, still yet mine are more in number.
2. More fully stammel colo(u)r: the shade of red in which the cloth was commonly dyed. Also attrib. or as adj. (Sometimes vaguely = ‘red.’)
In the 17th c. often spoken of as cheaper than ‘scarlet.’
1567. Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees), I. 273. Two peticotts thone of skerlet th’other of stamell xxxvs.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, II. iv. 151. The floures be … sometimes Carnation, Stamell, or Scarlet colour.
a. 1585. in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1914), XXIX. 518. Stanell Redes and lustie gallantes. Ibid., 519. You must have light skye collors…, fyne Redes and Stanells.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. iii. 612. The Violet’s purple, the sweet Rose’s stammell.
1598. Florio, Scarlatino, the colour we call stammell red.
1633. B. Jonson, King’s Entert. Welbeck (1640), 276. Red-hood the first that doth appeare In Stamel. Acc. Scarlet is too deare.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., IV. xii. 296. As if the scarlet robes of their honour had a stain of the stamell die in them.
1657. Ligon, Barbadoes, 70. The body of a mixt red, partly Crimson, partly Stammell.
1658. W. Sanderson, Graphice, 64. With breaks of Scarlet, or Stammell-colour.
1674. Milton, Hist. Moscovia, iv. Wks. 1851, VIII. 493. They were spread under-foot with Cloth of Gold … the Bridges with Scarlet and Stammel-cloth.
1725. Sloane, Jamaica, II. 54. Anoto-Berries dye a very fine Stammel colour.
1890. Æ. Prince, Palomide, 40.
| Ere comes a knight | |
| On lusty stammel steed with chiming pace. |
1893. Athenæum, 18 Nov., 706/1. Miss Gertrude Kingston, whose stammel tresses … are unbecoming and out of harmony with her face.
3. attrib. ‘Of stammel,’ as stammel-weaver; ‘made of stammel,’ as stammel breeches, cloak, petticoat (but here often referring to the color: see 2).
1591. Horsey, Trav. (Hakl. Soc.), 197. The ambassador … with his 30 men livored in stamell cloakes.
1596. Unton Invent. (1841), 3. Five stamell cotes.
1601. Marston, Jack Drums Entert., II. C 2. Mistresse Snuffe … hath newly put on her stamell petticoat.
1612. R. Daborne, Christian turn’d Turke, 2143. That fellow in the stammell hose is one of them.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., I. 48. The skirts of their coates … are gathered within long stammell broges.
1620. Fletcher, Fr. Lawyer, I. i. But I’ll not quarrell with this Gentleman For wearing stammell Breeches.
1634. Earl or Cork, Diary, in Lismore Papers, Ser. I. (1886), IV. 11. One whole peece … of very choice stamell cloath.
1820. Scott, Abbot, xix. She has a stammel waistcoat.
