Etymology

buckram

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Today it means: A coarse cloth of cotton, linen or hemp, stiffened with size or glue, used in bookbinding to cover and protect the books, in garments to keep them in the form intended, and for wrappers to cover merchandise. Full definition →

Middle English bukeram ← Anglo-Norman bokeram ← Old French boquerant
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buckram · noun, verb1

  1. Old French · derived fromboquerant
  2. Anglo-Norman · derived frombokeram
  3. Middle English · inherited frombukeram“fine linen”
  4. English todaybuckram

From Middle English bukeram (“fine linen”), from Anglo-Norman bokeram, from Old French boquerant, bougherant (“fine cloth”), bougueran, probably ultimately from Bokhara, a city in southeastern Uzbekistan.

buckram · noun2

Perhaps a back-formation from earlier buckrams, from buck + ramps, ramsh (“wild garlic, ramson”). Compare Danish ramsløg (“ramson”), Swedish ramslök (“bear garlic, ramson”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.