chamois

Borrowed from Middle French chamois, from Late Latin camox, from Gaulish camox (5th c. AD, Polemius Silvius), probably from an extinct Alpine language (Raetic, Ancient Ligurian), possibly Proto-Indo-European *kem- (“without horns”). Compare also Old High German gamiza (“chamois”) (whence modern German Gämse).

• Of the color sense (both nominal and adjectival) and of the animal sense (in the singular):
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈʃæmwɑː/
• Of the animal sense (in the plural):
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈʃæmwɑːz/
• Of the color sense (both nominal and adjectival) and of the sense concerning leather (in the singular):
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈʃæmi/
  • Rhymes: -æmi
• Of the sense concerning leather (in the plural):
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈʃæmiz/

chamois (countable and uncountable, plural chamoises or chamois)

1. A short-horned goat antelope native to mountainous terrain in southern Europe; Rupicapra rupicapra.
   • 1816 June – 1831 October 31, Mary W[ollstonecraft] Shelley, chapter I, in Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus (Standard Novels; IX), 3rd edition, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 22:

     When my father returned from Milan, he found playing with me in the hall of our villa a child fairer than pictured cherub – a creature who seemed to shed radiance from her looks and whose form and motions were lighter than the chamois of the hills.

2. Short for chamois leather (“soft pliable leather originally made from the skin of chamois (nowadays the hides of deer, sheep, and other species of goat are alternatively used)”).
   • 1825 June 22, [Walter Scott], chapter XVI, in Tales of the Crusaders. […], volume I (The Betrothed), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 317:

     [H]e seldom donned his armour, substituted costly damask and silk for his war-worn shamoy doublet, and affected at his advanced time of life more gaiety of attire than his contemporaries remembered as distinguishing his early youth.

3. The traditional colour of chamois leather.

   chamois:  

4. An absorbent cloth used for cleaning and polishing, formerly made of chamois leather.
   • 1926, Louise de Koven Bowen, Growing Up with a City, University of Illinois Press, →ISBN, page 39:

     I took them, breathed on them, polished them with a chamois and hung them on the chandelier.

   • 1984, Cruising World, page 158:

     Mirrors can be cleaned with warm water and ammonia or vinegar and polished with a chamois.

   • 1989, Popular Mechanics, page 146:

     Once your paint has been restored, drying your car with a chamois is just about all you have to do to restore the luster.

5. (cycling) A padded insert which protects the groin from the bicycle saddle.

• chamoix
• shamois
• shamoy (obsolete)

chamois (not comparable)

1. Chamois-colored.

chamois (third-person singular simple present chamoises, present participle chamoising, simple past and past participle chamoised)

1. (transitive) To clean with a chamois leather cloth.

   Synonym: shammy

• Appendix:Colors

• Roberts, Edward A. (2014) A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo-European Roots, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN

• chamiso

Inherited from Middle French chamois, from Late Latin camox, from Gaulish camox (5th c. AD, Polemius Silvius), probably from an extinct Alpine language (Raetic, Ancient Ligurian), possibly Proto-Indo-European *kem- (“without horns”).

• IPA^(key): /ʃa.mwa/

• Audio (France):

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chamois m (plural chamois)

1. chamois (animal)
2. chamois (leather)

• chamoiserie
• peau de chamois

• → Esperanto: ĉamo
  • Ido: chamo
• → Romanian: chamois, șamoa
• → Spanish: chamuz

• “chamois”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• chômais

Unadapted borrowing from French chamois.

chamois n (uncountable)

1. chamois leather