calico: [16] Calico, a plain cotton cloth, was originally Calicut-cloth. In the 16th and 17th centuries it was the main export of Calicut, now known as Kozhikode, a city and port on the southwest coast of India whose first European visitor was the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama (c. 1469–1524). In the 19th century Calicut was South India’s major port. (It has no connection with Calcutta.)
calico (n.)
1530s, kalyko, corruption of Calicut (modern Kozhikode), seaport on Malabar coast of India, where Europeans first obtained it. In 16c. it was second only to Goa among Indian commercial ports for European trade. Extended to animal colorings suggestive of printed calicos in 1807, originally of horses.
权威例句
1. The colonists bartered calico for Indian land.
殖民者以印花布交换印地安人的土地.
2. Her faded calico dress was open to the waist and her large bronze breast exposed.
她那件褪色的印花布衣裳敞到腰部,青铜色胸脯完全裸露在外面.
3. As Hetty concluded, she reverently unrolled a small English Bible from its envelope of coarse calico.
海蒂说完, 就庄重地从印花粗布套子里拿出一本小版本英语《圣经》.
4. The company imported a lot of calico from a foreign country.
那家公司从国外进口了许多印花棉布.
5. There are some color stains in this piece of calico.