What does Calico mean?

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Calico \Cal"i*co\, n.; pl. Calicoes. [So called because first imported from Calicut, in the East Indies: cf. F. calicot.]

1. Plain white cloth made from cotton, but which receives distinctive names according to quality and use, as, super calicoes, shirting calicoes, unbleached calicoes, etc. [Eng.]

[1913 Webster]

The importation of printed or stained colicoes appears to have been coeval with the establishment of the East India Company. --Beck (Draper's Dict. ). [1913 Webster]

2. Cotton cloth printed with a figured pattern. [1913 Webster]

Note: In the United States the term calico is applied only to the printed fabric. [1913 Webster]

Calico bass (Zool.), an edible, fresh-water fish (Pomoxys sparaides) of the rivers and lake of the Western United States (esp. of the Misissippi valley.), allied to the sunfishes, and so called from its variegated colors; -- called also calicoback, grass bass, strawberry bass, barfish, and bitterhead.

Calico printing, the art or process of impressing the figured patterns on calico. [1913 Webster]

Calico \Cal"i*co\, a. Made of, or having the appearance of, calico; -- often applied to an animal, as a horse or cat, on whose body are large patches of a color strikingly different from its main color. [Colloq. U. S.]

[1913 Webster]

calico adj
1: made of calico or resembling calico in being patterned; "calico dresses"; "a calico cat"
2: having sections or patches colored differently and usually brightly; "a jester dressed in motley"; "the painted desert"; "a particolored dress"; "a piebald horse"; "pied daisies" [syn: motley, calico, multicolor, multi-color, multicolour, multi-colour, multicolored, multi- colored, multicoloured, multi-coloured, painted, particolored, particoloured, piebald, pied, varicolored, varicoloured]

noun

1: coarse cloth with a bright print

C+@ Calico

(Formerly "Calico"). An object-oriented language from Bell Laboratories which uniformly represents all data as pointers to self-described objects. C+@ provides multiple inheritance with delegation and with control over which methods come from which delegated object; and default methodologies. It has a simple syntax with emphasis on graphics. It was originally used for prototyping of telecommunication services.

The language is patented by AT&T and Unir Tech has the exclusive license from Bell Labs to distribute C+@. Unfortunately Unir is owned and operated by well-known anti-IETF ranter, Jim Fleming, which may have had something to do with the language's rapid disappearence from the radar screen.

It runs under SunOS and compiles to Vcode.

E-mail: Jim Vandendorpe .

["A Dynamic C-Based Object-Oriented System for Unix", S. Engelstad et al, IEEE Software 8(3):73-85 (May 1991)].

["The C+@ Programming Language", J. Fleming, Dr Dobbs J, Oct 1993, pp.24-32].

[Jargon File]

(2005-01-05)



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