Czamara (from
Polish language
Polish (Polish: ''język polski'', , ''polszczyzna'' or simply ''polski'', ) is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group written in the Latin script. It is spoken primarily in Poland and serves as the native language of the Poles. In a ...
; plural ''czamary''; also known in the
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
as Cracow/Kraków coat; originally es, zamarra, french: chamarre, german: Tschamarre,
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
: ''samur'' - fur coat) was a type of outer garment in the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...
. It was worn there from the 16th century and came to the Commonwealth via
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
from
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
. It was first worn mostly by priests, and in the 18th century became a popular attire of (non-nobility)
burghers. In the 19th century, the czamara became a notable element of
male Polish national and patriotic attire.
Czamara was a kind of a
frock coat reaching up to the hips or thighs in a
kontusz
Kontusz (Polish plural ''kontusze''; uk, кунтуш, Lithuanian: ''kontušas''; originally from Hungarian ''köntös''- "robe") - a type of outer garment worn by the Hungarian and Polish-Lithuanian male nobility. It became popular in the ...
-like cut, lined with fur, with long, straight, narrow sleeves, and a lined, narrow, high collar, and decorative
frogs.
File:Чимари 1848.jpg, Men in czamaras
File:Чимара 1848.jpg, Man wearing a czamara
Notes
Bibliography
*
* ''Encyklopedia Polski'', Kraków 1996 s. 110.
Polish clothing
Lithuanian clothing
Coats (clothing)
{{Poland-stub