1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Corduroy

CORDUROY, a cotton cloth of the fustian kind, made like a ribbed velvet. It is generally a coarse heavy material and is used largely for workmen’s clothes, but some finer kinds are used for ladies’ dresses, &c. According to the New English Dictionary the word is understood to be of English invention, “either originally intended, or soon after assumed, to represent a supposed French corde du roi.” It is said that a coarse woollen fabric called duroy, made in Somerset during the 18th century, has no apparent connexion with it. From the ribbed appearance of the cloth the name corduroy is applied, particularly in America, to a rough road of logs laid transversely side by side, usually across swampy ground.