# chamois
## English
### Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French chamois, from Late Latin camox, from Gaulish camox (5th c. AD, Polemius Silvius), probably from an extinct Alpine language (Raetic, Ancient Ligurian), possibly Proto-Indo-European *kem- (“without horns”). Compare also Old High German gamiza (“chamois”) (whence modern German Gämse).

### Pronunciation

* Of the color sense (both nominal and adjectival) and of the animal sense (in the singular):
** (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈʃæmwɑː/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Of the animal sense (in the plural):
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Of the color sense (both nominal and adjectival) and of the sense concerning leather (in the singular):
** (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈʃæmi/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
** Rhymes: -æmi
* Of the sense concerning leather (in the plural):
** (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈʃæmiz/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)

### Noun

chamois (countable and uncountable, plural chamoises or chamois or chamoix)
* A short-horned goat antelope native to mountainous terrain in southern Europe; Rupicapra rupicapra.
** 1831 October 31, Mary W[ollstonecraft] Shelley, chapter I, in Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus (Standard Novels; IX), 3rd edition, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 22:When my father returned from Milan, he found playing with me in the hall of our villa a child fairer than pictured cherub – a creature who seemed to shed radiance from her looks and whose form and motions were lighter than the chamois of the hills.
* Short for chamois leather (“soft pliable leather originally made from the skin of chamois (nowadays the hides of deer, sheep, and other species of goat are alternatively used)”).
** 1825 June 22, [Walter Scott], chapter XVI, in Tales of the Crusaders. […], volume I (The Betrothed), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 317:[H]e seldom donned his armour, substituted costly damask and silk for his war-worn shamoy doublet, and affected at his advanced time of life more gaiety of attire than his contemporaries remembered as distinguishing his early youth.
* The traditional colour of chamois leather.
    chamois:
* An absorbent cloth used for cleaning and polishing, formerly made of chamois leather.
** 1926, Louise de Koven Bowen, Growing Up with a City, University of Illinois Press, →ISBN, page 39:I took them, breathed on them, polished them with a chamois and hung them on the chandelier.
** 1984, Cruising World, page 158:Mirrors can be cleaned with warm water and ammonia or vinegar and polished with a chamois.
** 1989, Popular Mechanics, page 146:Once your paint has been restored, drying your car with a chamois is just about all you have to do to restore the luster.
* (cycling) A padded insert which protects the groin from the bicycle saddle.

#### Alternative forms

* chamoix
* shamois
* shamoy (obsolete)

#### Derived terms

* cattle chamois
* chammy, shammy
* chamois leather
* Pyrenean chamois
* ShamWow

#### Translations
### Adjective

chamois (not comparable)
* Chamois-colored.

### Verb

chamois (third-person singular simple present chamoises, present participle chamoising, simple past and past participle chamoised)
* (transitive) To clean with a chamois leather cloth.
    Synonym: shammy

### See also

* Appendix:Colors

### References

* Roberts, Edward A. (2014) A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo-European Roots, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN

### Anagrams

* chamiso

## French
### Etymology

Inherited from Middle French chamois, from Late Latin camox, from Gaulish camox (5th c. AD, Polemius Silvius), probably from an extinct Alpine language (Raetic, Ancient Ligurian), possibly Proto-Indo-European *kem- (“without horns”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ʃa.mwa/
* Audio (France):(file)

### Noun

chamois m (plural chamois)
* chamois (animal)
* chamois (leather)

#### Derived terms

* chamoiserie
* peau de chamois

#### Descendants

* → Esperanto: ĉamo
** Ido: chamo
* → Romanian: chamois, șamoa
* → Spanish: chamuz

### Further reading

* “chamois”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

### Anagrams

* chômais

## Romanian
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French chamois.

### Noun

chamois n (uncountable)
* chamois leather