chamois
pronunciation
How to pronounce chamois in British English:
UK [ˈʃæmwɑ:]
How to pronounce chamois in American English:
US [ˈʃæmi]
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- Noun:
- a soft suede leather formerly from the sheep of the chamois antelope but now from sheepskin
- hoofed mammal of mountains of Eurasia having upright horns with backward-hooked tips
Word Origin
- chamois
- chamois: [16] The word chamois (the name of a species of Alpine antelope) probably goes back to a language spoken in the Alps before the Romans penetrated northwards. They adopted it as late Latin camox, and in the local Romansch language it is kamuotsch, but the source of the English word is the related French chamois. Its use in the sense ‘soft wash-leather’, as originally made from the skin of the chamois, dates from the 16th century, although the spelling shammy is not recorded before the 17th century.
- chamois (n.)
- 1550s, "Alpine antelope;" 1570s, "soft leather," originally "skin of the chamois," from Middle French chamois "Alpine antelope" (14c.), from Late Latin camox (genitive camocis), perhaps from a pre-Latin Alpine language that also produced Italian camoscio, Spanish camuza, Old High German gamiza, German Gemse (though some of these might be from Latin camox). As a verb, "to polish with chamois," from 1934.
Example
- 1. A bearded chamois polish frizzle .
- 2. You can get a shawl and a chamois in the same aisle .
- 3. These animals , though wild and agile as chamois , were too much like domestic goats , and franz could not consider them as game .
- 4. Unfortunately , we cannot send you immediately a full range of samples , but you may take it that such skins as chamois and doeskin , not represented in the parcel , are of the same high quality .