“Another early material that lasted into our grandmothers' time is tabby. This was originally a striped silk taffeta, but the word was later used as a general term for waved or watered cloth, like moiré silk. The name is taken from the Attabiy quarter of Baghdad where the cloth was made, as a 12th-century writer attests: "Here are made the stuffs called Attabiya, which are silks and cottons made of various colours." An early reference to this material occurs in the London Gazette: "Lost,...a child's Mantle, of Sky-colour Tabby." “Because of the irregular striped pattern of tabby cloth, the word also came to be applied to a new breed of cat that began to make its appearance in England at the end of the 17th century...”
TABBYING, the passing a silk or stuff under a calender, the rolls of which are made of iron or copper, variously engraven, which bearing unequally on the stuff renders the surface thereof unequal, so as to reflect the rays of light differently, making the representation of waves thereon. ---A New and Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. 1764.
3 Annotations
First Reading
Pedro • Link
Tabby
“Another early material that lasted into our grandmothers' time is tabby. This was originally a striped silk taffeta, but the word was later used as a general term for waved or watered cloth, like moiré silk. The name is taken from the Attabiy quarter of Baghdad where the cloth was made, as a 12th-century writer attests: "Here are made the stuffs called Attabiya, which are silks and cottons made of various colours." An early reference to this material occurs in the London Gazette: "Lost,...a child's Mantle, of Sky-colour Tabby."
“Because of the irregular striped pattern of tabby cloth, the word also came to be applied to a new breed of cat that began to make its appearance in England at the end of the 17th century...”
http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/i…
Second Reading
Bill • Link
There is a discussion of tabby on 13 October 1661 when SP mentioned his "false taby wastecoate." http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Bill • Link
TABBYING, the passing a silk or stuff under a calender, the rolls of which are made of iron or copper, variously engraven, which bearing unequally on the stuff renders the surface thereof unequal, so as to reflect the rays of light differently, making the representation of waves thereon.
---A New and Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. 1764.