Editing Cotton (section)

==Etymology==
The word "cotton" has [[List of English words of Arabic origin|Arabic origins]], derived from the [[Arabic]] word {{lang|ar|قطن}} ({{lang|ar-Latn|qutn}} or {{lang|ar-Latn|qutun}}) which is ultimately derived from the [[Hebrew]] כֻּתֹּנֶת ''kuttṓnĕṯ'', ironically meaning a clothing made of linen. This was the usual word for cotton in [[Classical Arabic|medieval Arabic]].<ref name=BahethInfo>A number of large dictionaries were written in Arabic during medieval times. Searchable copies of nearly all of the main medieval Arabic dictionaries are online at [http://www.baheth.info/index.jsp Baheth.info] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170415064207/http://baheth.info/index.jsp |date=15 April 2017 }} and/or [http://www.alwaraq.net/Core/AlwaraqSrv/getsubjectex?fkey=4&offset=1&subjectid=37 AlWaraq.net]. One of the most esteemed of the dictionaries is [[Ismail ibn Hammad al-Jawhari]]'s ''"Al-Sihah"'' which is dated around and shortly after year 1000. The biggest is [[Ibn Manzur]]'s ''"Lisan Al-Arab"'' which is dated 1290 but most of its contents were taken from a variety of earlier sources, including 9th- and 10th-century sources. Often Ibn Manzur names his source then quotes from it. Therefore, if the reader recognizes the name of Ibn Manzur's source, a date considerably earlier than 1290 can often be assigned to what is said. A list giving the year of death of a number of individuals who Ibn Manzur quotes from is in [https://archive.org/stream/ArabicEnglishLexicon.CopiousEasternSources.EnlargedSuppl.Kamoos.Lane.Poole.1863/01.ArabicEnglLex.v1p1.let.1.2.3.4..Alif.Ba.Ta.Tha..Lane.1863.#page/n30/mode/1up Lane's ''Arabic-English Lexicon'', volume 1, page xxx] (year 1863). Lane's ''[[Arabic-English Lexicon]]'' contains much of the main contents of the medieval Arabic dictionaries in English translation. At AlWaraq.net, in addition to searchable copies of medieval Arabic dictionaries, there are searchable copies of a large number of medieval Arabic texts on various subjects.</ref> [[Marco Polo]] in chapter 2 in his book, describes a province he calls Khotan in Turkestan, today's [[Xinjiang]], where cotton was grown in abundance. The word entered the [[Romance languages]] in the mid-12th century,<ref name=CNRTLfr>More details at [http://www.cnrtl.fr/etymologie/ ''CNRTL.fr Etymologie''] in French language. [[Centre national de ressources textuelles et lexicales]] (CNRTL) is a division of the [[French National Centre for Scientific Research]].</ref> and English a century later. Cotton fabric was known to the ancient [[Roman Empire|Romans]] as an import, but cotton was rare in the [[Romance-speaking Europe|Romance-speaking lands]] until imports from the Arabic-speaking lands in the later medieval era at transformatively lowered prices.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mazzaoui |first1=Maureen Fennell |title=The Italian Cotton Industry in the Later Middle Ages, 1100-1600 |date=1981 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-23095-7 }}{{page needed|date=November 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The definition of cotton |url=http://dictionary.com/browse/cotton |website=[[Dictionary.com]] |access-date=21 March 2019 |language=en}}</ref>