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taffeta

.
Searchable Lemmata: taffata (AF), taffata (L), taffata (ME), taffeta (MdE).
Alternate Forms: tafata, tafeta, taffate, taffeta, taffecta, tafitte.

    Definitions and Defining Citations:

1(n.) Textile; a firm, tabby-woven silk textile, a type of sendal; probably made in Europe, very likely Italy, though the name suggested a more exotic origin and came to be used in preference to sendal/cendal in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries [King, D. (1993)]. In her discussion of silks in fourteeth-century Wardrobe accounts, Lisa Monnas notes that 'For a silk cloth, taffata was really very inexpensive: in the purchase rolls of 1325-94, it ranges from 6 1/2d. to 18d. per ell', and, 'It seems reasonable to suppose that in the late Medieval period, plain-coloured attaby and taffata may have been versions of "tabby" weaves, just as with tabby and taffeta today' [Monnas, L. (1989), 299].(ante 1331 still in current use)
1. [229] ... trestoutz les fernicules (l. fermailes?), anelx, diamondes, rubies ... [230] ... la piece d’arras la quele le duc de B. me donna ... deux les meliours pieces de draps d’arras que j’ay ... juxte chescun arbre un alant blak liez a mesme l’arbre ... mon graunt lit de camaca escheice blank et rouge ... mon meillour coler, ovecque touts les diamondes ... [231] ... les curtins del taffata blank batuz Wills. (citations from individual page of text may not appear in original order) [AND Test Ebor (i 229-231) 1316/1491]
2. In sangwyn and in pers [vr. perce] he clad was al Lyned with taffata [vr. Tafeta] and with sendal Poetic. [MED Chaucer CT.Prol. ((Manly-Rickert) A.439-440) circa 1390]
3. The ij ridels of tapheta, that I boght of Sir Rauf, be gyfen to the Prior of Huntyngton into the new Chapell of our Lady, that now es in makyng, to the wirchip of hir auter ... Half a clathe of gude white blanket. Wills. [MED Will York in Sur.Soc.4 (185) 1393/1394]
4. [4] ... Garderopa: Una toga de blodio cum pelle grisia ... Toga sanguinea cum pelle bissina ... Toga nova de blodio, mixto cum pelle de bevyr ... Toga de skarlet cum pelle depurata ... Toga de skarleto cum cristygray ... [5] ... Una capa nigra, linyd cum viridi tafitte, pret vj s. viij d., vend. pro x s. ... Cloca duplex de blodio, cum linyng de pannes Wills. (citations from individual page of text may not appear in original order) [MED Will York in Sur. Soc. 45 (4-5) 1395]
5. [24] ... It'm i pane paled wt menuer and red gray ... [26] ... Y will and ordeyne þt Elizabeth my wief haue an auterchoith of gold, reed, and blanc, wt silour of reede and blew taffata ... Item, a playn sanap of viij 3erds long Wills. [MED Will in Bdf.HRS 2 (24-26) 1415]
6. My lyfe is wyth lustys and lykynge ilent; Wyth tapytys of tafata I tymbyr my towrys Drama, Poetic. [MED Castle Persev. ((Folg V.a.354) 239) ante 1450]
c.f.: sendal
AF, L, ME, MdE.
Sex: N/A    Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: N/A.
References: Monnas, L. (1989)

    Etymological Evidence:

Definite, Medieval L taffata, taffeta, AF taffata and Old French ('taffetas' in Godefroy/Le Trésor de la Langue Française); ultimately from Persian.
WF:
Etym Cog:
References:
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