Buckram. [Said by some etymologists to have been derived from bucca, a hole, from the fabric being woven loosely and open, and afterward gummed, calendered and dyed; by others, the fabric is said to have taken its title from the place of its original manufacture, Bokhara, in Tartary; also conjecturally referred to as having been derived from L. bouquena, goat's skin. Formerly spelled bokeram, bouqueran, bockaran, buckeram] A coarse unbleached linen cloth, stiffened with glue or gum, used as a stiffening for keeping garments in a required shape, and recently also for binding books. Buckram was originally a very different material to that now known by the name. It is described in the fourteenth century as a " fine thinne cloth" ranking with the richest silks, and as late as the beginning of the sixteenth century this stuff was held good enough for lining to a black velvet gown for Queen Elizabeth. There can, however, be no doubt that buckram of a common description was early applied to a dress lining, as the prices on many old invoices do not show a fine material, so that the character of the fabric must have undergone a great change prior to the fourteenth century, even much more so than it has since done.