Cotton

Webster's Dictionary

(1): (v. i.) To rise with a regular nap, as cloth does.

(2): (v. i.) To go on prosperously; to succeed.

(3): (v. i.) To unite; to agree; to make friends; - usually followed by with.

(4): (n.) A soft, downy substance, resembling fine wool, consisting of the unicellular twisted hairs which grow on the seeds of the cotton plant. Long-staple cotton has a fiber sometimes almost two inches long; short-staple, from two thirds of an inch to an inch and a half.

(5): (n.) Cloth made of cotton.

(6): (v. i.) To take a liking to; to stick to one as cotton; - used with to.

(7): (n.) The cotton plant. See Cotten plant, below.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Cotton is the better tr. [Note: translate or translation.] (so RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ) of karpas , which in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] and RV [Note: Revised Version.] is tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘green,’   Esther 1:6 . It was either muslin or calico.

E. W. G. Masterman.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Cotton. Cotton is now both grown and manufactured in various parts of Syria and Palestine; but there is no proof that, till they came in contact with Persia, the Hebrews generally knew of it as a distinct fabric from linen. See Linen .

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Κarpas . KJV has "green" ( Esther 1:6), where "cotton" ought to be; for Kurpasa in Sanskrit and kindred terms of other eastern languages means "cotton." Cotton was manufactured, though not grown, anciently in Egypt. In India is the earliest record of its use for dress.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

Was a native product of India, and perhaps of Egypt, and is supposed to be intended in some of the passages where the English version has "fine linen." It had been much disputed whether cotton clothe was used by the ancient Hebrews and Egyptian mummies were wrapped, proves that this material was sometimes used, especially for children. See Flax, Linen

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Cotton is well known to be a wool-like substance which envelopes the seeds, and is contained within the roundish-pointed capsule or fruit of the cotton-shrub. Everyone also knows that cotton has, from the earliest ages, been characteristic of India. But in the present day cotton, by the aid of machinery, has been manufactured in this country on so extensive a scale, and sold at so cheap a rate, as to have driven the manufacture of India almost entirely out of the market. Still, however, until a very recent period, the calicoes and chintzes of India formed very extensive articles of commerce from that country to Europe. India possesses two very distinct species of plants from which cotton is obtained: 1. K. Gossipium herbaceum of botanists, of which there are several varieties, some of which have spread north, and also into the south of Europe, and into Africa. 2. Gossipium arboreum, or cotton-tree, which is little cultivated on account of its small produce, but which yields a fine kind of cotton. This must not be confounded, as it often is, with the silk-cotton tree, or Bombyx heptaphyllum, which does not yield a cotton fit for spinning. Cotton is now chiefly cultivated in Central India, from whence it is carried to and exported from Broach. It is also largely cultivated in the districts of the Bombay Presidency, as also in that of Madras, but less in Bengal, except for home manufacture, which of course requires a large supply, where so large a population are all clothed in cotton. The supplies of cotton which we derive from America are obtained from two entirely distinct species—Gossipium Barbadense, of which different varieties yield the Sea Island, Upland, Georgian, and the New Orleans cottons; while G. Peruvianum yields the Brazil, Pernambuco, and other South American cottons. These species are original natives of America. It is probable that cotton was imported into Egypt and known to the Hebrews, but it is extremely difficult to prove the fact: the subject has been extensively investigated, but the point is still undetermined.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

kot ´' n ( כּרפס , karpaṣ is the better translation, as in the Revised Version, margin, where the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) have "green" in  Esther 1:6 ): The Hebrew karpaṣ is from the Persian kirpas and the Sanskrit karpāsa , "the cotton plant." The derived words originally meant "muslin" or "calico," but in classical times the use of words allied to karpaṣ ̌ - in Greek and Latin - was extended to include linen. The probability is in favor of "cotton" in   Esther 1:6 . This is the product of Gossypium herbaceum , a plant originally from India but now cultivated in many other lands.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

Bibliography Information McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Cotton'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/c/cotton.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.