What does cassimere mean?
Cassimere is the name of a fine, soft twilled woolen cloth once widely used for men's tailoring, especially suits and trousers. The word arose in English as one of several spellings — alongside kerseymere and eventually cashmere — of a term ultimately derived from Kashmir, the Himalayan region associated with the prized underwool of the Kashmir goat. Over time the spellings diverged in sense: 'cashmere' settled as the standard modern word for the luxury fiber and garments made from it, while 'cassimere' came to denote a specific dress and suiting fabric, often of wool or wool blended with cotton, valued for its smooth surface and supple drape. Today the word is essentially historical, appearing in textile scholarship, costume design, and period fiction rather than everyday speech. It evokes the world of nineteenth-century drapers and bespoke tailoring, when merchants offered cassimere in an array of weights and shades. Readers encountering it should understand it as a fabric term, not a misspelling of cashmere, though the two words are etymologically siblings.
A fine, soft twilled woolen fabric used especially for suits and other tailored garments.
"The merchant displayed bolts of cassimere in navy, black, and fawn."
Chiefly found in historical and textile contexts today.
An older variant spelling of cashmere, denoting the soft wool of the Kashmir goat or cloth made from it.
"An early catalog advertised shawls woven from genuine Indian cassimere."
Archaic; superseded by the spelling 'cashmere'.
The plural is rare and typically refers to multiple fabrics or bolts of cloth of this type.
"The tailor stocked cassimeres in every shade from charcoal to camel."
Before 'cashmere' became a byword for luxury sweaters, English tailors spelled it 'cassimere' — a name that traveled all the way from the Himalayan valley of Kashmir into 19th-century cloth merchants' catalogs.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cassimere
Cassimere entered English as a variant of kerseymere, itself a corruption of 'Kashmir', the region whose goat-hair wool gave the name to cashmere yarn. English clothiers applied the exotic place name to a locally woven twilled woolen cloth, producing spellings such as kerseymere, cassimere, and cashmere over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. As the spellings stabilized, 'cashmere' retained the association with the goat's fiber while 'cassimere' settled on the twilled dress fabric. Its closest cognates are therefore kerseymere and cashmere, all descendants of the same geographic name.
How cassimere is actually used
Cassimere is now largely historical or specialist vocabulary, encountered mainly in discussions of antique textiles, period costume, and vintage trade catalogs. In contemporary usage, writers almost always use 'cashmere' instead; 'cassimere' survives chiefly as the name of the twilled woolen cloth in textile history.
Easily confused with cassimere
Cashmere is the standard modern term for the yarn or fiber from the Kashmir goat (and loosely for garments made of it), while cassimere is an older spelling that came to denote a specific twilled woolen dress fabric.
Kerseymere is an earlier variant of the same word, historically denoting a closely woven twilled cloth, whereas cassimere is a later respelling of it.