chamois

(plural: chamois (also chamoix) pronunciation: “sha-ma-waz”; pronunciation (singular): in British English “sha-ma-wa (z)”,; and in American English “sha-mi” — for the different pronunciations of this word, please click here & please click here)

According to some authorities, the pronunciation ‘shami‘, also spelled ‘chammy’ or ‘shammy’, is for the cloth or ‘leather’ made from chamois skin used for cleaning things, and ‘shamwa‘ is for the animal. For the pronunciation of the cloth made from this animal ‘sha-mi’ and the animal ‘sham-wa’, please click here.

a chamois

a kind of animal – mammal – antelope – related to goats and sheep; short horns, about 5 inches in length growing upwards with a hook-like backward curl; white face with black stripes; on average, grows to 2-2½ feet tall land weighs about 50 Kg.; feeds on (eats) tough grass and shoots; lives for about 20 years; found in the high mountains of southern Europe to Caucasus – mostly in the Alps mountains, and south-west Asia,

backward-turned horns

male ~~ buck

female ~~ doe

baby ~~ kid

group ~~ herd

voice (call) ~~ trumpet (bucks)

Special Features:

The Chamois is known as “the king of the mountain peaks”.

chamois leather gloves

Chamois are timid, agile (= very active) and sure-footed on the uneven rocky areas; and are hunted for their tasty meat and very valuable soft leather, and also for sport.

Chamois’s skin is made into very smooth leather which is used in cleaning and polishing because it does not produce streaking/doesn’t fray (= not leaving pieces of fibre on the surface), and also soft suede leather made into suede shoes is also from the skin of chamois.

a chamois (car-wash cloth)

{The treated skin is called: chamois or chammy or shammy – plural chamois or chammies or shammies}

[But most of the leather sold these days as chamois is ordinary sheep skin!]

The tuft of hair from the back of chamois neck is traditionally worn on the people’s hats throughout the Alpine countries – Austria, Germany, Slovenia and Switzerland.

There are several brands of sports creams by the name chamois!