corduroy

Etymology

Origin uncertain. Probably from cord + duroy (“name of a 17th century coarse fabric made in England”). Probably not from French *corde du roi (“cloth of the king”), which is unattested in French, where the term for the "cloth of the king" was velours côtelé. Possibly from cordesoy (“corde de soie”), or "rope of silk or silk-like fabric" in French), named for example in a 1756 advertisement for clothing fabrics; see Wikipedia article, and comparable in language form to the contemporary serg(e)dusoys (“silk serge”), see Serge (fabric).

noun

1. A heavy fabric, usually made of cotton, with vertical ribs.
   We turned to see a muscular young man lounging in the door which led into the sitting-room. He wore green corduroy trousers, a duffle coat and an old school tie. 1956, Delano Ames, chapter 4, in Crime out of Mind
2. (obsolete, Ireland, slang) Cheap and poor-quality whiskey.
   Another description of what would be termed adulterated spirits, is by the vulgar termed "Corduroy," on account of the rough feeling which it imparts to the tongue and palate.] [1834-06-16, John Edgar, “Minutes of Evidence, Monday, the Sixteenth Day of June, 1834”, in Evidence on Drunkenness, London: British and Foreign Temperance Society, published 1834, page 93
   To men of common gumption, / Hot strange, besides, must seem / At this time any scheme / To put a check upon potheen's consumption, / When all are calling for Irish Poor Laws! / Instead of framing more laws, / To pauperism if you'd give a pegger, / Don't check, but patronise their "Kill-the-Beggar!" / If Pat is apt to go in Irish Linen, / (Buttoning his coat, with nothing but his skin in) / Would any Christian man -- that's quite himself, / His wits not floor'd, or laid upon the shelf --, While blaming Pat for raggedness, poor boy, / Would deprive him of his "Corduroy!" 1835, Thomas Hood, “Ode to J. S. Buckingham, Esq. M.P.”, in The Comic Annual, pages 135–136
3. A pattern on snow resulting from the use of a snow groomer to pack snow and improve skiing, snowboarding and snowmobile trail conditions. Corduroy is widely regarded as a good surface on which to ski or ride.

adj

1. Of a road, path, etc., paved with split or round logs laid crosswise side by side.
   Swamps had to be crossed by means of corduroy causeways; made by cutting down trees and laying them horizontally on the quivering mass of boggy ground. 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 146

verb

1. To make (a road) by laying down split logs or tree-trunks over a marsh, swamp etc.
   The night was very dark and it rained heavily, the roads were so bad that the troops had to cut trees and corduroy the road a part of the way, to get through. 1886, Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, chapter 53
   But Sherman organized “pioneer battalions” of soldiers and freedmen […] to cut saplings and trees to corduroy the roads, build bridges, and construct causeways. 1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, Oxford, published 2004, pages 827–8