| 释义 |
▪ I. chamois, n.
(ˈʃæmɔɪ, ˈʃæmɪ, ‖ ʃamwa)
Forms: see below.
[a. F. chamois (16th c. in Littré), prob. from Swiss Romanic: in Tyrolese camozza, camozz, Piedm. camossa, camoss, mod.Pr. camous, Rumansch camuotsch, chamotsch (Diez); It. camozza, camoscio (cf. camoscia chamois leather); Sp. camuza, gamuza, Pg. camuça, camurça. Presumably of the same origin as OHG. and MHG. gamz, mod.G. gemse; but the relations between the Teutonic and Romanic words have not been ascertained, and no etymology is known either in Latin or Teutonic. See Diez, Littré, Kluge.
The English form chamoy, chamoi, was doubtless partly at least due to the final -s being taken as a plural ending. The name of the animal is now always written chamois; but sense 2 is still frequently shammy and shamoy.]
1. a. (Forms: 6 shamoye, 7 shamois(e, shammois, 7–8 shamoys, 8 shammoy, chamoi, 6– chamois.) A capriform antelope (A. rupicapra or Rupicapra tragus), the only representative of the antelopes found wild in Europe; it inhabits the loftiest parts of the Alps, Pyrenees, Taurus, and other mountain ranges of Europe and Asia.
Its size is that of a full-grown goat; it is covered with brown hair, and has horns, about six inches long, which rise straight above the head, bending back so as to form complete hooks. Its agility and keenness of scent make its chase most difficult and exciting. (The ‘chamois’ of the English Bible is probably a moufflon.)
1560Bible (Genev.) Deut. xiv. 5 The vnicorne, and the wilde oxe, and the chamois [1535 Coverd. camelion]. 1598Florio, Muffri, a kind of beast like a shamoye or wild goate. 1601Holland Pliny II. 332 The wilde Shamois. 1623Cockeram ii, A wilde Goate, Shamoise. 1704Collect. Voy. (Churchill) III. 44/2 The Animals called Guanaco's, Chamoi's, or Wild-Goats. 1728Scheuchzer in Phil. Trans. XXXV. 591 A Height, which the..Shamoys themselves scarce venture to ascend. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. II. 38 The shammoy is to be found only in rocky and mountainous places. 1783Ainsworth Lat. Dict. (Morell) 1, A chamoise. 1789Mrs. Piozzi Journ. France I. 38, I had the satisfaction of seeing a chamois at a distance. 1871Darwin Desc. Man i. iv. (1885) 100 Rabbits stamp loudly on the ground with their hind-feet as a signal! Sheep and chamois do the same with their fore-feet.
b. attrib. and Comb.; also chamois-like a. & adv.
1580Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, A Chamoise skinne. 1829Scott Anne of G. ii, I am no chamois-hunter. 1832G. Downes Lett. Cont. Countr. I. 103 A chamois-hunting ditty. a1835Mrs. Hemans Shepherd in Poems (1875) 512 The courage and the grace Foster'd by the chamois-chase. 1875B. Taylor Faust iii. II. 217 Chamois-like dost thou aspire?
2. (Forms: 6 shameuse, shamway, 6–7 shamoyes, 7 chamoyse, chamoy, chammois, 7– shamois, shamoy, chamois; also shammy, q.v.) Originally, a leather, prepared from the skin of the chamois; now applied to a soft, pliable leather prepared from the skins of sheep, goats, deer, calves, and the split hides of other animals. More fully chamois- (shamoy-, shammy-) leather; see quots. α below.
α1575Turberv. Falconrie 140 Of shameuse leather or soft calves leather or such other leather as maye bee gentle and plyaunte to hir legge. 1588R. Parke tr. Mendoza's Hist. China 328 Hides and shamway skins very well dressed. 1668Rolle Abridgm. 63 He hath cozened you, and hath sold you Lamb-skins instead of Shamoys-skins. 1822J. Imison Sc. & Art II. 347 Pieces of soft shamoy leather. 1827Faraday Chem. Manip. xx. 539 Squeeze it through a piece of shamois leather. 1877Blackmore Erema lii, What she had kept for years in a bag of chamois-leather.
β1588R. Parke tr. Mendoza's Hist. China 334 Many mantles, and shamwayes very well dressed. 1594Blundevil Exerc. v. iii. (ed. 7) 533 Buffe, Shamoyes, striped Marokines. 1611Beaum. & Fl. Scornf. Lady ii. ii, Let thy bounty Clap him in shamois. 1633Batt. Lutzen in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) IV, The king..forthwith called for a new sute of chammois. 1693Evelyn De la Quint. Compl. Gard. II. 114 Shreads of Sheep's-Skin, or Shamoy. 1720Stow's Surv. (ed. Strype 1754) II. v. xi. 292/1 Rams skins and sheep skins sold for right shamoises..to the wrong and hindrance of the buyer. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1862) I. ii. iii. 307 The leather called shammoy is made also from [the skins] of the tame goat, the sheep and the deer. 1831Carlyle Misc. II. 231 Softer than the softest shamoy. 1837Goring & Pritchard Microgr. 20 A bit of chamois or wash-leather perfectly free from dust.
b. attrib. as name of a material.
1603Florio Montaigne (1632) 145 Plaine chamoy-jerkins. 1638Shirley Mart. Soldier ii. i. in Bullen O. Pl. I. 190 A Shamoyes Doublet. 1724Lond. Gaz. No. 6255/2 Chamoy Shooes. 1825Scott Betrothed xvi, His war-worn shamoy doublet.
3. The colour of chamois leather; hence chamois-coloured adj. Also as adj.,0of the colour of this leather, yellowish brown or fawn-coloured.
1872Young Englishwoman Nov. 599/1 A delicate buff called chamois-colour. 1882Garden 24 June 436/1 Mdme. Serret, creamy white, suffused with chamois. 1887Pall Mall G. 2 May 13/2 It is..yellow—or, as stamp collectors might say—chamois in colour. 1898Daily News 26 Sept., Chamois-coloured kerseymere. 1923Daily Mail 26 Feb. 1 Gauntlet Gloves..in Chamois.
▪ II. chamois, v.|ˈʃæmɔɪ, ˈʃæmɪ|
Also shamois, chamoy
[f. the n.; cf. F. chamoiser.]
1. To prepare leather in imitation of the chamois skin.
1727–52Chambers Cycl. s.v. Shammy, Manner of Shamoising, or of preparing sheep, goat, or kid-skins in oil, in imitation of Shammy. 1804W. Nicholson Jrnl. Nat. Phil. IX. 251 (title) Account of a Memoir on Chamoying of Leather.
2. trans. To polish with a chamois leather. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
1934Amer. Speech IX. 236 The second verb of a sign at Minneapolis, Minnesota, Cars Washed and Chamoised, is said by W. F. Thompson, who reports it, to be unintelligible to most motorists. They expect shammied. 1936Mencken Amer. Lang. (ed. 4) 194 A large number..give evidence of the American liking for short cuts in speech, e.g...to chamois (or, perhaps more often, to shammy) for to polish with chamois, to model for to act as a model. 1980J. Barnes Metroland iii. vi. 174 I'm chamoising the car in the front drive and some half-familiar face walks past and smiles.
Hence ˈchamoised ppl. a., made of, or dressed like, chamois-leather.
1620Shelton Quix. IV. v. (R.) Don Quixote..put on his chamoiz'd apparel, and his boots.
▪ III. chamois
var. camois a. Obs. pug(nose), pug-nosed. |