calico

Meanings

Noun

• A kind of rough cloth made from unbleached and not fully processed cotton, often printed with a bright pattern.
• ; a cat with fur of the colors black, white and orange.
• The plant disease caused by Tobacco mosaic virus.

Adjective

• Made of calico or resembling the color of calico cloth, having a pattern of red and contrasting areas; variegated.

Origin

• From Calicut, in India, from where the cloth was originally exported, from Malayalam കോഴിക്കോട് ("Kozhikode"), from കോഴി + ക്കോട്, with ‘y’ replaced by interchangeable ‘zh’.