BOMBAZINE, or BOMBASINE  , a stuff originally made of silk or silk and wool, and now also made of cotton and wool or of wool alone . Good bombazine is made with a silk warp and a worsted weft . It is twilled or corded and used for dress-material . Black bombazine has been used largely for mourning, but the material has gone out of fashion . The word is derived from the obsolete French bombasin, applied originally to silk but afterwards to " tree-silk " or cotton . Bombazine is said to have been made in England in Queen Elizabeth's reign, and early in the 19th century it was largely made at Norwich .