Percale is a closely woven plain-weave

fabric Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

often used for bed covers. Percale has a thread count of about 200 or higher and is noticeably tighter than the standard type of weave used for bedsheets. It has medium weight, is firm and smooth with no gloss, and warps and washes very well. It is made from both carded and combed

yarn Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, used in sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, ropemaking, and the production of textiles. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufac ...

s, and may be woven of various fibers, such as

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor p ...

, polyester, or various blends.

History

''Moris'' or ''mauris'' was the 18th century French term used for percale, the cloth imported from India. It was a

cloth. Moris was the third most exported fabric from

Coromandel Coast The Coromandel Coast is the southeastern coastal region of the Indian subcontinent, bounded by the Utkal Plains to the north, the Bay of Bengal to the east, the Kaveri delta to the south, and the Eastern Ghats to the west, extending over an ...

after Longcloth and Salampore. It was superior and finer quality than the peers. Coromandel coastline forms a part of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil languag ...

and

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to t ...

. Moris was produced at

Nellore Nellore is a city located on the banks of Penna River, in Nellore district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It serves as the headquarters of the district, as well as Nellore mandal and Nellore revenue division. It is the fourth most popu ...

, Arni, Maduranthakam, and

Cuddalore Cuddalore, also spelt as Kadalur (), is the city and headquarters of the Cuddalore District in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Situated south of Chennai, Cuddalore was an important port during the British Raj. While the early history of Cudda ...

Palakollu Palakollu is a city and the administrative headquarters of Palakollu Mandal in Narasapuram revenue division in West Godavari district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Palakollu is situated in Coastal Andhra region of the state. It oc ...

.The cloth was famous as painted chintz in southeast countries also. Percale was formerly imported from India in the 17th and 18th centuries, then manufactured in France.

Etymology

The word may originate from the Persian ''pargālah'', meaning ''rag'', although the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (as of December 2005) has traced it only as far as 18th-century French. The dictionary of the

Institut d'Estudis Catalans The Institute for Catalan Studies ( ca, Institut d'Estudis Catalans, ), also known by the acronym and initialism, acronym IEC, is an academic institution which seeks to undertake research and study into "all elements of Catalan culture". It is bas ...

describes and as ''some kind of silk fabric in the year 1348 in

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

''. The etymological dictionary of Catalan explains as ''derived from

Perche Perche () (French: ''le Perche'') is a former province of France, known historically for its forests and, for the past two centuries, for the Percheron draft horse breed. Until the French Revolution, Perche was bounded by four ancient territori ...

in France''. In the year 1322 in

Dalmatia Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see names in other languages) is one of the four historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of the Adriatic Sea, stre ...

, which had trade connections also as the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia ...

, Peter de genere Percal was mentioned. This word ''Percal'', which occurred the first time in a Supreme Court verdict on Latin in 1322 in Dalmatia, derived from the Hebrew word פרקליט (), which derived from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

word παράκλητος (), which means ''lawyer''. The relationship between bedding and law in ancient Persia can be guessed, because according to

Phanias of Eresus Phaenias of Eresus ( grc, Φαινίας ὁ Ἐρέσιος, ''Phainias''; also Phanias (Φανίας)) was a Greek philosopher from Lesbos, important as an immediate follower of and commentator on Aristotle. He came to Athens about 332 BCE, and ...

Artaxerxes I of Persia Artaxerxes I (, peo, 𐎠𐎼𐎫𐎧𐏁𐏂𐎠 ; grc-gre, Ἀρταξέρξης) was the fifth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, from 465 to December 424 BC. He was the third son of Xerxes I. He may have been the "Artasy ...

had given to Themistocles the city of Percote with

bedding Bedding, also known as bedclothes or bed linen, is the materials laid above the mattress of a bed for hygiene, warmth, protection of the mattress, and decorative effect. Bedding is the removable and washable portion of a human sleeping environm ...

for his house. Taking into account the different spellings of this "generatio Percal" due to the variations ''Parkly'' and ''Perkly'' in Dalmatia, the name of a farm near

Linlithgow Palace The ruins of Linlithgow Palace are located in the town of Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland, west of Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

, which had been built in the 14th century by a first cousin of the grandmother of this Peter de genere Percal, was mentioned in 1431 also as ''Parkly''. This farm was also mentioned as ''Parkle'' (1431), ''Perkley'' (1432), ''Parcle'' (1438), ''Perkle'' (1439), ''Parklye'' (1440), ''Parklee'' (1489), ''Perklee'' (1490/91), ''Parklie'' (1528), ''Pairklie'' (1638), ''Pairkly'' (1647) and ''Parkly'' (1648) since then and it is mentioned as ''Parkley'' since 1671.Parkley farm
/ref>

References

External links

* {{Fabric Woven fabrics

History

Etymology

See also

References

External links