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bombace

.
Searchable Lemmata: bombace (AF), bombax (L), bombace (MdE).
Alternate Forms: bonbace, bombés.

    Definitions and Defining Citations:

1(n.) Raw Material; cotton; cotton down; cotton fibre. Also, silk or cotton fabric (often indistinguishable).(circa 1200 - ante 1450)
1. [50] ... le devez custre od un delié aguille d’un file de soie ... [62] ... E uns autres envolupent bombés, ço est cotun, entur un fer Medical. [AND A-N Med (i 50-62) 1200/1300]
2. pro v libris de bombace ad iij culcitras nostras Accounts. (silk or cotton fabric) [DMLBS Cl (103) 1208]
3. Tut le vis de ceo laverez, D’un drap linge u bombace Medical. AND: 'cotton' [AND Chir ANTS (372) circa 1250]
4. obturantes vulnus bombace Historic. (silk or cotton fabric) [DMLBS Ann. Worc. (490) circa 1284]
5. arboribus bumbacem portantibus, que sunt parve et humiles, que per omnia emittunt bumbacem sicut rosa florem Other. (cotton fibre) [DMLBS S. SIM. (Itin. 40) circa 1322/1323]
6. in empcione iij librarum bombacis Accounts. (silk or cotton fabric) [DMLBS ExchScot (482) 1342]
7. tente fiant de bombace vel panno lineo intincto in incausto Medical. (silk or cotton fabric) [DMLBS GAD. (9.2 (b)) ante 1350]
8. Some [trees] ben bigrowe, as it were, with here other with wolle, and þer of ben cloþes y made by crafte, as it were bombaxraw silk (in the same text, 'bombax' also used for silkworm) [MED *Trev.Barth. ((Add 27944) 184b/a) ante 1398]
c.f.: bombe
AF, L, ME, MdE, OScots.
Sex: N/A    Use: n/a    Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: N/A.

    Etymological Evidence:

Definite, The vernacular forms derive from Late Latin bombax, bombacem (cotton), a corruption of Latin bombyx (silk) with a transferred meaning. Bombyx comes originally from Greek, used to to refer to the silkworm or its product. 'Bombax' was occasionally used in the vernacular to refer to the silkworm or its product, as in the translation of John Trevisa's Bartholomaeus's De Proprietatibus Rerum (a1398): 'Bombax is a worme þat bredith in twigges and spray of Cipres and ... of molbery tree ... and hatte bombax ffor he is y made voyde and clene while þe þred passeþ out of him' [MED, * Trev. Barth.(Add 27944) 274b/b].
WF:
Etym Cog: bombyx.
References:
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