1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bombazine

BOMBAZINE, or Bombasine, a stuff originally made of silk or silk and wool, and now also made of cotton and wool or of wool alone. Good bombazine is made with a silk warp and a worsted weft. It is twilled or corded and used for dress-material. Black bombazine has been used largely for mourning, but the material has gone out of fashion. The word is derived from the obsolete French bombasin, applied originally to silk but afterwards to “tree-silk” or cotton. Bombazine is said to have been made in England in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, and early in the 19th century it was largely made at Norwich.