quote:

CHINTZ s. printed or spotted cotton cloth; Port. chita; Mahr. chīt, and H. chīṇt. The word in this last form occurs (c. 1590) in the Āīn-i-Akbari (i. 95). It comes apparently from the Skt. chitra, 'variegated, speckled.' The best chintzes were bought on the Madras coast, at Masulipatam and Sadras. The French form of the word is chite, which has suggested the possibility of our sheet being of the same origin. But chite is apparently of Indian origin, through the Portuguese, whilst sheet is much older than the Portuguese communication with India. Thus (1450) in Sir T. Cumberworth's will he directs his "wreched body to be beryd in a chitte with owte any kyste" (Academy, Sept. 27, 1879, p. 230).

The resemblance to the Indian forms in this is very curious.

1614. -- ". . . chintz and chadors. . . ." -- Peyton, in Purchas, i. 530.

[1616. -- "3 per Chint bramport." -- Cocks's Diary, i. 171.

[1623. -- "Linnen stamp'd with works of sundry colours (which they call cit)." -- P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 45.]

1653. -- "Chites en Indou signifie des toilles imprimeés." -- De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1647, p. 536.

c. 1666. -- "Le principal trafic des Hol- landois à Amedabad, est de chites, qui sont de toiles peintes." -- Thevenot, v. 35. In the English version (1687) this is written schites (iv. ch. v.).

1676. -- "Chites or Painted Calicuts, which they call Calmendar, that is done with a pencil, are made in the Kingdom of Golconda, and particularly about Masulipatam. " -- Tavernier, E.T., p. 126; [ed. Ball, ii. 4].

1725. -- "The returns that are injurious to our manufactures, or growth of our own country, are printed calicoes, chintz, wrought silks, stuffs, of herba, and barks." -- Defoe, New Voyageround the World. Works, Oxford, 1840, p. 161.

1726. -- "The Warehouse Keeper reported to the Board, that the chintzes, being brought from painting, had been examined at the sorting godown, and that it was the general opinion that both the cloth and the paintings were worse than the musters."-<-> In Wheeler, ii. 407.

c. 1733.-
"No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace
Wrap my cold limbs, and shade my lifeless face."
Pope, Moral Essays, i. 248.
"And, when she sees her friend in deep despair,
Observes how much a Chintz exceeds Mohair. . . ."
Ibid. ii. 170.

1817. -- "Blue cloths, and chintzes in particular, have always formed an extensive article of import from Western India."-<-> Raffles, H. of Java, i. 86; [2nd ed. i. 95, and comp. i. 190].

In the earlier books about India some kind of chintz is often termed pintado (q.v.). See the phraseology in the quotation from Wheeler above.

This export from India to Europe has long ceased. When one of the present writers was Sub-Collector of the Madras District (1866-67), chintzes were still figured by an old man at Sadras, who had been taught by the Dutch, the cambric being furnished to him by a Madras Chetty (q.v.). He is now dead, and the business has ceased; in fact the colours for the process are no longer to be had.* The former chintz manufactures of Pulicat are mentioned by Correa, Lendas, ii. 2, p. 567. Havart (1693) mentions the manufacture at Sadras (i. 92), and gives a good description of the process of painting these cloths, which he calls chitsen (iii. 13). There is also a very complete account in the Lettres Édifiantes, xiv. 116 seqq.

In Java and Sumatra chintzes of a very peculiar kind of marbled pattern are still manufactured by women, under the name of bātik.

quote:

chintzy, a.
[f. CHINTZ + -Y1.]

Decorated or covered with chintz; suggestive of a pattern in chintz. Also in extended use: suburban, unfashionable, petit-bourgeois, cheap; mean, stingy.

1851 GEO. ELIOT Let. 18 Sept. (1954) I. 362 The effect is chintzy and would be unbecoming.

1902 Academy 12 Apr. 379/1 Hunt's rhapsodical interpretation of Tickell's chintzy mythological poem on Kensington Gardens.

1923 U. L. SILBERRAD Lett. Jean Armiter vi. 135 The drawing-room was chintzy then—white walls and old china and bowls of roses and pink shaded lights.

1941 J. H. N. COLLIER Presenting Moonshine 5 A chintzy woman, possibly of literary tastes, swam forward.

1951 G. GREENE End of Affair III. vii. 145 He got up from his chintzy chair and came and sat with me on the chintzy sofa.

1958 B. HAMILTON Too Much of Water ii. 30 A pleasant white-and-gold chintzy drawing-room.

1964 L. DEIGHTON Funeral in Berlin xxx. 154 I'll have to revise my attitude to the chintzy old bastard.

quote:

[Originally chints, plural of chint, a. Hindi chint; also formerly found as chite, F. chite, Pg. chita, a. Mahrati chit in same sense; both:—Skr. chitra variegated. The plural of this word, being more frequent in commercial use, came in course of time to be mistaken for a singular, and this to be written chince, chinse, and at length chintz (app. after words like Coblentz, quartz). This error was not established before the third quarter of the 18th c., although editors and press-readers have intruded it into re-editions of earlier works. Cf. the similar baize for bays.]

quote:

The only use of the noun chintz is for the type of fabric.

quote:

Originally posted by zmježd:
There's a US regional English term chintz, or chinch, for 'bedbug' in the DARE and Cassell's Dictionary of Slng.

quote:

chinch, a. and n.2
obs.
[ME. chiche, a. OF. (and mod.) chiche parsimonious, = Cat. xic, chic little, of little worth, Sp. chico little; cf. It. cica small thing. In later F. it became chinche, by nasalization of i (as in various other words). In Eng. also chinche in later use; often written by copyists, where the rime shows that the original had chiche.]

A. adj. Niggardly, sparing, penurious, parsimonious, miserly.
a1300 Havelok[/i] 1763 He..dide grey{th}e a super riche, Also he was no [whit] chinche [so l. 2941].
c1320 Seuyn Sag[/i]. (W.) 1244 And that other lef to pinche, Bothe he was scars and chinche.
c1400 Rom. Rose[/i] 5591 He..Lyveth more at ese, & more is riche, Than doth he that is chiche. Ibid. 6001 For chynche & feloun is Richesse, That so can chase hem.

B. n. A niggard, miser; a wretch.
a1300 Cursor M. 12972 (Cott.) Yeitt can {th}at chinche wit godd to chide.
c1325 E.E. Allit. P. A. 604 {Th}e gentyl cheuentayn is no chyche.
c1386 CHAUCER Melib. {page}653 An auaricious man or chynche.
a1450 Knt. de la Tour ciii. 136 A woman shulde not be a chiche of that she hathe in gret plente.
1570 LEVINS Manip. 134 A chince, parcus.

chinch, v.
Obs. rare. To be niggardly; to stint.
c1440 Promp. Parv. 75 Chynchyn, or sparyn mekylle [H. chinkinge or to mekel sparyn], perparco.
a1450 Langl. P. Pl. C XIII. 227 (MS. Dk. Westm.) That chafferen as chapmen and chynchen [other MSS. chiden] but {th}ei geten.