chamois

Meanings

1. A short-horned goat antelope native to mountainous terrain in southern Europe; Rupicapra rupicapra.
2. Ellipsis of chamois leather (“soft pliable leather originally made from the skin of chamois (nowadays the hides of deer, sheep, and other species of goat are alternatively used)”).
3. The traditional colour of chamois leather.
4. An absorbent cloth used for cleaning and polishing, formerly made of chamois leather.
5. A padded insert which protects the groin from the bicycle saddle.

1. Chamois-colored.

1. To clean with a chamois leather cloth.

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).