BOMBAZINE

bombazine, or bombasine, a stuff originally made of silk or silk and wool, and now also made of cotton and wool or of wool alone. good bombazine is made with a silk warp and a worsted weft. it is twilled or corded and used for dress-material. black bombazine has been used largely for mourning, but the material has gone out of fashion. the word is derived from the obsolete french _bombasin_, applied originally to silk but afterwards to "tree-silk" or cotton. bombazine is said to have been made in england in queen elizabeth's reign, and early in the 19th century it was largely made at norwich.