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.^[1] Kersey cloth may have been named after this place.

Inherited from Middle English kersey, perhaps from the village of Kersey in Suffolk, England, UK, in the region where the cloth was made.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɜːzi/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

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

Noun

kersey (countable and uncountable, plural kerseys)

1. A type of rough woollen cloth.
   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598, →OCLC; republished as Shakspere’s Loves Labours Lost (Shakspere-Quarto Facsimiles; no. 5), London: W[illiam] Griggs, […], [1880], →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:

     Hencefoorth my wooing minde ſhalbe expreſt / In ruſſet yeas, and honeſt kerſie noes.

   • 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

Georgian: მატყლის ქსოვილი (უხეში) (maṭq̇lis ksovili (uxeši)) Middle English: kersey Spanish: carisea

See also

• broadcloth

References

1. From P[eter] H[empson] Ditchfield (1912) “Village Industries”, in The Cottages and the Village Life of Rural England, London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd. 10–13 Bedford Street W.C.; New York, N.Y.: E. P. Dutton & Co., →OCLC, page facing page 167.

Further reading

• kersey (cloth) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Yerkes, Keyser, seerky, skeery, rekeys, keyers

Middle English

Alternative forms

• carissay, Carsay, carsey, karsey, Karsey, karyssey, kercie, Kersay, Kersey, kerseye

Etymology

From Kersey, a town in Suffolk; equivalent to Old English cærse (“cress”) +‎ ēġ (“island”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɛrzæi̯/, /ˈkarzæi̯/

Noun

kersey

1. kersey (a kind of cloth)
2. A piece of kersey.

Descendants

• English: kersey

References

• “kersei, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.