tallow, n., cowl, n., & frieze, n.
tallow, n.
1. a. The fat or adipose tissue of an animal, esp. that which yields the substance described in sense 2; suet.
Etymology: Middle English talȝ, talgh, known first in 14th cent.; corresponds to Middle Low German talg, talch, Low German talg, in early modern Dutch talg, talch(16th cent.), Dutch talk feminine and German talg, in 1572 talck masculine; Modern Icelandic (14th cent.) tólg, tólk, Middle Danish (13th cent.) talgh, talwh, Middle Swedish talgh(er), modern Icelandic tólg, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish talg, Norwegian dialect tolg, taag, taalg, tølg, Faroese tálg.
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cowl, n.
1. a. A garment with a hood (vestis caputiata), worn by monks, varying in length in different ages and according to the usages of different orders, but ‘having the permanent characteristics of covering the head and shoulders, and being without sleeves’ ( Cath. Dict.). †Also, formerly, a cloak or frock worn by laymen or by women.
Etymology: The derivation and form-history present difficulties. Old English renders Latin cuculla by cugele, cugle, cuhle and cule, weak feminine; also cufleweak feminine The former comes down in 12–13th cent. cūle, and the coule, cowle(coole) of later times; cufle may be the parent of kuuele (which in Ancren R. would regularly stand for kuvele), couele, kuuel, couel. Old English cugele is cognate with Old High German cucula, cugula, chugela (Middle High German kugele, kugel, gugel, Low German kogel), < ecclesiastical Latin cuculla monk's cowl, < classical Latin cucullus hood of a cloak. Old English cufle appears to be cognate with Middle Dutch covele, cövel(e (feminine), in Kilian kovel, modern Dutch keuvel ‘cowl’, and to be connected with (perhaps the origin of) Icelandic kofl, kufl strong masculine ‘cowl’. The history of cufle and its allied forms is obscure.
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frieze, n.
1. A kind of coarse woollen cloth, with a nap, usually on one side only; now esp. of Irish manufacture.
Etymology: < French frise (from 15th cent.), < friser (16th cent.) to curl (hair, etc.): see frizz v.
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But while Chichikov was sitting in his uneasy chair, troubled by his thoughts and sleeplessness, heartily reviling Nozdrev and all his kith and kin, and before him warmly glowed a tallow candle, the wick of which had long since become covered with candle snuff as if with a black cowl and was threatening to go out at any moment, and sightless, black night was peering in at the windows just about to turn bluish because of the approaching dawn, and roosters, afar off, were exchanging their clarion calls, and throughout the town, all sunk in slumber, there may not have been a soul out on the streets save for some frieze overcoat tipsily weaving along somewhere, some poor wretch, his class and rank unknown, and himself knowing only (alas!) the path…
(Gogol [Guerney], Dead Souls, p.172)













