Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

nankeen

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.20 in modern English

Syllables: nan-keen
IPA

11

Scrabble Score

7

Letters

2

Syllables

4

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A type of cotton cloth originally from Nanking in China.

Countable; Uncountable

Example Sentences

""Well, I wore my diamond, as you may imagine, and rigged myself in my best clothes, viz. my blue coat and brass buttons before-mentioned, nankeen trousers and silk stockings, a white waistcoat, and a pair of white gloves bought for the occasion.""
"1885, L. and A. Maude (translators), Leo Tolstoy, "What Men Live By", in What Men Live By and Other Tales He put on over his shirt his wife's wadded nankeen jacket, and over that he put his own cloth coat."
"c. 1910-1920, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Thomas Seltzer (translator), A Christmas Tree and a Wedding She was a poor widow, and her little boy, clad in a sorry-looking little nankeen jacket, looked thoroughly crushed and intimidated."

Etymology

Eye spelling of Nanking, itself a romanization of Chinese 南京 (Nánjīng, literally “Southern capital”).

Origin

Source language: Chinese

Word Breakdown

Root: 南京

Usage

Inflected Forms

nankeens (plural)

Phrases

nankeen kestrel nankeen night heron

Questions

What does nankeen mean?: A type of cotton cloth originally from Nanking in China.
Where does nankeen come from?: It is traced to Chinese.

How to pronounce nankeen

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