The French origins of the word 'chamois'

'Chamois' is a word borrowed from French 'chamois'. The word entered the English language some time around 1560.

chamois [noun] [1560]

• a small goatlike bovid (Rupicapra rupicapra) of mountainous regions from southern Europe to the Caucasus
• a soft pliant leather prepared from the skin of the chamois or from sheepskin
• a cotton fabric made in imitation of chamois leather

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note: The word chamois comes from French ultimately from Late Latin camox referring to the agile Alpine antelope; it entered English around the 1550s for the animal then the soft leather (made from its skin or similar) by the 1570s. Derived from an extinct Alpine language possibly Raetic or Ligurian related to crooked for its hooked horns.
Etymology: Middle French, from Late Latin 'camox'

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