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 rot." 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 Amercia, to a rough road of logs laid transversely side by side, usually across swampy ground .