balzarine

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

balzarine (countable and uncountable, plural balzarines)

1. A lightweight fabric made from cotton and wool, used for summer dresses.
   • 1857, Louisa Anne Meredith, Shadows of a Golden Image:

     Originally she had come to me, possessed but of one gown, and that a forlorn and ragged balzarine, with four draggled, torn flounces.

   • 1860, Asahel Clark Kendrick, The Life and Letters of Mrs. Emily C. Judson, page 95:

     Then I have little messengers racing "like mad" through the galleries of my head ; spinning long yarns, and wearing fabrics rich and soft as the balzarine which I so much covet, until I shut my eyes and stop my ears and whisk away, with the 'wonderful lamp' safely hidden in my own brown braids.

   • 2013, M M Kaye, Shadow of the Moon, →ISBN:

     She was still wearing the crushed and crumpled morning-dress of balzarine that she had put on in her bedroom at the Abuthnots' bungalow in Delhi Cantonment ... how long ago?