pongee

[ pon-jee, pon-jee ]

/ pɒnˈdʒi, ˈpɒn dʒi /

silk of a slightly uneven weave made from filaments of wild silk woven in natural tan color.

a cotton or rayon fabric imitating it. Compare Shantung(def 2), tussah(def 1).

Origin of pongee

First recorded in 1705–15, pongee is from the Chinese word běnjī homewoven, literally, one's own loom

pondoland, pondweed, pone, pong, ponga, pongee, pongid, pongidae, pongo, poniard, ponograph

Pongee is a beautiful, durable silk in different shades of natural color.

Textiles and Clothing |Kate Heintz Watson
All the men were in drill or pongee, and so receptive is the imagination that the picture robbed the room of half its heat.

Parrot & Co. |Harold MacGrath
The Colonel folded his pongee, and came again to Hulda's side.

The Entailed Hat |George Alfred Townsend
And the pongee person was so competent, so quietly sure, so angularly graceful among his brakes and levers.

Fanny Herself |Edna Ferber

Marjorie knelt at Katherine's other side, her hand inside Katherine's pongee blouse.

Marjorie Dean, College Sophomore |Pauline Lester

pongee

/ (pɒnˈdʒiː, ˈpɒndʒiː) /

a thin plain-weave silk fabric from China or India, left in its natural colour

a cotton or rayon fabric similar to or in imitation of this, but not necessarily in the natural colour

C18: from Mandarin Chinese (Peking) pen-chī woven at home, on one's own loom, from pen own + chi loom