kersey

See also: Kersey

English

WOTD – 24 March 2018

Etymology

A 1912 illustration by Alfred Robert Quinton of houses formerly occupied by weavers in the village of Kersey in Suffolk, England, UK. Kersey cloth may have been named after this place.

Perhaps from the village of Kersey in Suffolk, England, UK, in the region where the cloth was made.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɜːzi/
• IPA^(key): /ˈkɝzi/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)zi
• Hyphenation: ker‧sey

Noun

kersey (countable and uncountable, plural kerseys)

1. A type of rough woollen cloth.
   • 1722, [Daniel Defoe], A Journal of the Plague Year, London: Printed for E[lizabeth] Nutt at the Royal-Exchange; J. Roberts in Warwick-Lane; A. Dodd without Temple-Bar; and J. Graves in St. James's-street, →OCLC, page 247:

     [T]here was a Report, that one of our Ships having by Stealth delivered her Cargo, among which was ſome Bales of Engliſh Cloth, Cotton, Kerſyes, and ſuch like Goods, the Spaniards cauſed all the Goods to be burnt, and puniſhed the Men with Death who were concern'd in carrying them on Shore.

   • 1867, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The Adirondacs”, in May-Day and Other Pieces, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC; republished Boston, Mass.: James R. Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., 1875, →OCLC, page 47:

     In Adirondac lakes, / At morn or noon, the guide rows bareheaded: / Shoes, flannel shirt, and kersey trousers make / His brief toilette […]

Related terms

• kerseymere

Translations

type of rough woollen cloth

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Georgian: მატყლის ქსოვილი (უხეში) (maṭq̇lis ksovili (uxeši))

See also

• broadcloth

Further reading

• kersey (cloth) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Keyser, keyers, rekeys