bombasin

English

Noun

bombasin (countable and uncountable, plural bombasins)

1. Alternative spelling of bombazine
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 51–52:

     After the first grief, or rather fright, of Mr. Arundel's death, and when broad hems and deep crape-falls had been sufficiently discussed to have induced an uninitiated person to believe that people really died to oblige others to wear bombasin;...

French

Etymology

From 1299. From Italian bambagine, bambagia (“cotton”), from Late Latin Bambax, from Ancient Greek βόμβυξ (bómbux, “silkworm”); compare bombyx.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /bɔ̃.ba.zɛ̃/

Noun

bombasin m (plural bombasins)

1. (obsolete) Alternative form of bombazine.
   • 2018, Herman Melville, translated by Philippe Jaworski, Moby-Dick, Gallimard, page 179:

     Un autre s’approche en suroît et manteau de bombasin.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

References

• “bombasin”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle French

Etymology

From Italian bambagine, bambagia (“cotton”), from Late Latin Bambax, from Ancient Greek βόμβυξ (bómbux, “silkworm”); compare bombyx.

Noun

bombasin m (plural bombasins)

1. bombasine, bombazine

Descendants

• → French: bombasin, bombasine, bombazine
• → English: bombazine
• → Dutch: bombazijn