What does camlet mean?
Camlet is a sturdy woven fabric traditionally made from camel's hair, either alone or blended with wool or silk, valued historically for combining lightness with strength and resistance to wet weather. From the Middle Ages onward, and especially in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, it was widely used across Europe for cloaks, riding coats, gowns, and other outer garments; the word also came to denote any garment made of the material, and loosely any woolen fabric that imitated true camel-hair cloth. Today camlet survives mainly in historical writing, period drama, costume studies, and the records of merchants and diarists — Samuel Pepys famously noted buying camlet cloaks. The term derives via French and Italian from Arabic roots relating to piled or shaggy cloth, and its sound has often led people to assume a connection with the camel itself, which is at least partly apt given the fibre involved. For readers, encountering 'camlet' is a reliable signal of historical or antiquarian context.
nounA durable woven fabric, historically made of camel's hair alone or blended with silk or wool, used especially for outer garments such as cloaks and gowns; by extension, a garment made of this material.
- A woven fabric of camel's hair, or a blend of camel's hair with wool or silk, prized for being light, strong, and water-resistant.
- An article of clothing, typically a cloak or gown, made from camlet cloth.
- (Historical, by extension) Any fine woolen fabric imitating true camel-hair cloth, regardless of its actual composition.
"The travelling merchant wrapped his weather-worn camlet cloak tightly against the autumn rain."
"Her grandfather's camlet overcoat, inherited from his days as a sea captain, still shed rain after all these years."
"The tailor quoted him a steep price for a suit of the finest Turkish camlet imported through London."
The plural is uncommon in modern English but well attested historically, referring to individual garments made of camlet or to bolts of the cloth.
"The merchant's warehouse held woollens, linens, and several bales of camlets awaiting export."
Though it sounds like something out of an Arabian tale, camlet was once ordinary enough that diarist Samuel Pepys routinely recorded buying camlet cloaks for himself and his wife.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of camlet
Camlet entered English in the late Middle Ages, borrowed through forms such as Old French 'chamelot', itself likely carried into Europe from Arabic sources associated with piled or hairy textiles. Because the name resembles 'camel', writers long assumed the cloth was named directly after the animal whose hair supplied it, though the precise chain of transmission remains debated among scholars. Related trade names such as 'cameline' circulated alongside it, and the fabric became a staple of European textile markets before fading into purely historical usage.
How camlet is actually used
Camlet is now chiefly encountered in historical contexts — period fiction, costume design, museum collections, and accounts of early modern trade and dress. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was a mainstream, respectable fabric for everyday outerwear rather than a luxury item; modern usage carries a faintly archaic, antiquarian flavour. The plural 'camlets' is rare but legitimate when referring to garments or bolts of the cloth.
Easily confused with camlet
A camel is the desert animal whose hair was traditionally used to make the textile called camlet.
Chambray is a lightweight cotton fabric with a coloured warp and white weft, unrelated to the heavier camel-hair or wool-silk blend known as camlet.