corduroy: [18] Popular etymology usually associates corduroy with a supposed French corde du roy ‘cord of the king’ or even couleur du roy ‘king’s colour’ (the original corduroy having according to this theory been purple), but in fact there is no concrete evidence to substantiate this. A more likely explanation is that the word’s first syllable represents cord in the sense ‘ribbed fabric’, and that the second element is the now obsolete noun duroy ‘coarse woollen fabric’ [17], of unknown origin.
corduroy (n.)
1780, probably from cord + obsolete 17c. duroy, name of a coarse fabric made in England, which is of unknown origin. Folk etymology is from *corde du roi "the king's cord," but this is not attested in French, where the term for the cloth was velours à côtes. Applied in U.S. to a road of logs across swampy ground (1780s) on similarity of appearance.
CORDUROY ROAD. A road or causeway constructed with logs laid together over swamps or marshy places. When properly finished earth is thrown between them by which the road is made smooth; but in newly settled parts of the United States they are often left uncovered, and hence are extremely rough and bad to pass over with a carriage. Sometimes they extend many miles. They derive their name from their resemblance to a species of ribbed velvet, called corduroy. [Bartlett]
实用例句
1. He wore brown corduroy pants and a white cotton shirt.
他身着棕色灯芯绒裤子和白色棉衬衫。
来自柯林斯例句
2. He wore an ill-fitting green corduroy suit.
他穿了件很不合身的绿色灯芯绒西装。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Nicholas was wearing a corduroy jacket.
尼古拉斯穿着一件灯芯绒夹克衫.
来自《简明英汉词典》
4. He took a bunch of keys from the pocket of his old corduroy trousers.
