calico

See also: calicò

English

Calico used as a bookbinding material

Calico cat

Alternative forms

• callico (archaic)

Etymology

From Calicut, in India, from where the cloth was originally exported, from Malayalam കോഴിക്കോട് (kōḻikkōṭŭ, “Kozhikode”), from കോഴി (kōḻi, “palace”) + കോട് (kōṭŭ, “fortified palace”), with ‘y’ replaced by interchangeable ‘zh’.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkælɪkəʊ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

calico (countable and uncountable, plural calicos or calicoes)

1. (textiles) A kind of rough cloth made from unbleached and not fully processed cotton, often printed with a bright pattern.
   • 1832, Michael Faraday, “Experimental Researches in Electricity”, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, volume 122, →DOI, →JSTOR, page 126:

     This helix was covered with calico, and then a second wire applied in the same manner.

   • 2017 June 30, Ruth La Ferla, “In ‘The Beguiled,’ Pretty Confections Whipped Up to Seduce”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Trussed in corsets, jawbone-high collars and calicos that had seen better days, they have little enough to work with, their attempts at coquetry further constrained by their rigid mores of the day.

2. (countable, zoology) Ellipsis of calico cat.
   • 2022, N. K. Jemisin, The World We Make, Orbit, page 111:

     One of them, a calico whose half-grown kittens he just fed, slow-blinks at him, an affectionate gesture.

3. (uncountable) The plant disease caused by Tobacco mosaic virus.

Derived terms

• calico bass
• calico corn
• calicoed
• calico queen

 

Translations

kind of cloth

• Afrikaans: kaliko, katoen
• Arabic:

  Egyptian Arabic: شيت m (šīt)

• Bulgarian: платно (bg) (platno), хасе (hase), басма (basma)
• Dutch: calicot (nl) n
• Finnish: kaliko (fi), kalikoo (fi)
• French: calicot (fr) m
• German: Kattun m, Kaliko (de) m
• Hindi: छींट f (chī̃ṭ), छीँट (hi) f (chī̃ṭ)
• Italian: calicò (it) m
• Khakas: ситсе (sitse)
• Kumyk: чыт (çıt)
• Kyrgyz: чыт (ky) (cıt)
• Maori: kariko
• Norman: calicot m (Jersey)
• Ottoman Turkish: قالیقوت (kalikot)
• Portuguese: calicó m, calicô m
• Romanian: stambă (ro) f, cit (ro) n
• Russian: си́тец (ru) m (sítec), коленко́р (ru) m (kolenkór), митка́ль (ru) m (mitkálʹ), бязь (ru) f (bjazʹ)
• Southern Altai: сыйса (sïysa)
• Spanish: calicó (es) m
• Swahili: kaniki
• Swedish: kalikå (sv) c
• Tatar: ситса (sitsa), ситсы (sitsı)
• Turkish: kaliko (tr)
• Yiddish: ציץ m (tsits)

cat

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 三毛貓／三毛猫 (zh) (sānmáomāo), 三花猫 (zh) (sānhuāmāo)

• Dutch: lapjeskat (nl) m or f, calicokat m or f
• French: calico (fr), tricolore (fr)
• Japanese: 三毛猫 (ja) (mikeneko), 三毛 (ja) (mike)
• Portuguese: gato tricolor m
• Spanish: gato calicó m
• Vietnamese: mèo tam thể (vi)

Adjective

calico

1. Made of calico or resembling the color of calico cloth, having a pattern of red and contrasting areas; variegated.

   Synonym: tortoiseshell

   The calico cat had distinctive red and dark markings.

   The calico-patterned tablecloths were supposed to make the restaurant look rustic; instead, they made it look run down.

   • 1976, Bob Dylan (lyrics and music), “Sara”, in Desire:

     Sara, oh Sara / Scorpio Sphinx in a calico dress

Translations

having a pattern of red and contrasting areas

• Bulgarian: басмен (basmen), пъстър (bg) (pǎstǎr), шарен (bg) (šaren)

Further reading

• calico (textile) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• calico cat on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• accoil, acocil, calcio-

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from English calico or French calicot.

Noun

calico n (uncountable)

1. calico

Declension

declension of calico (singular only)

	singular
n gender	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) calico	calicoul
genitive/dative	(unui) calico	calicoului
vocative	calicoule