What does calamanco mean?
Calamanco is a now-obsolete term for a glossy worsted woollen cloth, typically woven in England from the seventeenth century onward and prized for its smooth, lustrous surface, which was produced by calendering or glazing. It came in plain, striped, or figured varieties and was used chiefly for women's gowns, petticoats, waistcoats, and occasionally for furniture coverings. In eighteenth-century commerce it appeared constantly in drapers' inventories and advertisements alongside related textiles such as camlet, serge, and baize. As a word it functions only as a noun naming the fabric itself, never a garment made from it. Today it is encountered almost exclusively in historical novels, costume scholarship, and museum catalogues, where it serves as a precise label for a once-common but now vanished material — making it valuable vocabulary for anyone working with early modern or Georgian textiles.
nounA glossy woollen stuff, plain or figured, formerly woven in England and used especially for women's dresses and petticoats.
- A glossy, often figured worsted woollen fabric, popular from the 17th to 19th centuries, used chiefly for women's garments and upholstery.
"The merchant's ledger listed bolts of calamanco alongside camlets and serges."
"She ordered six yards of blue calamanco for a new gown."
"The inventory recorded 'calamanco, striped and flowered', among the draper's stock."
Rarely pluralized; when counted, bolts or pieces of the cloth are usually referred to individually rather than as 'calamancos'.
"Two pieces of calamanco were entered in the day book."
Before cotton took over the wardrobe, 'calamanco' was the word every 18th-century dressmaker knew — a wool so polished it could pass for silk.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of calamanco
The etymology of calamanco is uncertain; it entered English in the early seventeenth century, likely through trade channels, with some sources suggesting a possible Spanish connection though no derivation has been firmly established. The name became attached to English-woven glazed worsteds that dominated the market for over two centuries before falling out of use in the nineteenth century.
How calamanco is actually used
Now obsolete as a trade term, calamanco survives mainly in historical texts, period fiction, and museum textile descriptions. It is always a mass noun referring to cloth, not to a finished garment.
Easily confused with calamanco
Camlet is a fabric traditionally made of camel hair or silk-and-wool, whereas calamanco is a glossy worsted woollen cloth.