noun
historicalA type of legging or gaiter worn to protect the legs from being spattered with mud, water, etc. Compare "spatterdash". Chiefly in plural.
During the 18th and 19th centuries largely restricted to Scots and northern English.
Origin
Late 16th century; earliest use found in Thomas Nashe (d. c1601), writer. From Middle French gamache, by haplology from Spanish guadamecí kind of leather made in Ghadames (1207; also †guadamecil, †guadamecin, etc.; compare Portuguese guadameci, also guadamecil, guadamecim) from Arabic ġadāmasī of or relating to Ghadames from Ġadāmas, the name of a town in Libya (English Ghadames), where a highly esteemed kind of leather was made.
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