'Corduroy' probably means 'ribbed fabric' — the popular 'king's cloth' etymology is folk legend.
A thick cotton fabric with velvety ribs (wales) running lengthwise along the surface.
The origin is debated. The popular etymology 'corde du roi' ('cord of the king,' French) is almost certainly folk etymology — no French fabric by that name is attested. More likely from English 'cord' (a ribbed fabric, from Old French 'corde,' from Latin 'chorda,' from Greek 'χορδή,' 'string, gut') combined with an obscure element, possibly 'duroy,' an eighteenth-century coarse woollen fabric. The fabric was
The 'corde du roi' origin story — that corduroy was the 'cloth of the king' — has been repeated in fabric shops and textbooks for centuries but has no historical basis. No French source uses this term, and the French word for corduroy is 'velours côtelé' ('ribbed velvet'), not anything involving 'roi.' The myth is a classic example of folk etymology: an unfamiliar word explained by a plausible-sounding