What is "calico"

Calico \Cal"i*co\, a. Made of, or having the appearance of, calico; -- often applied to an animal, as a horse or cat, on whose body are large patches of a color strikingly different from its main color. [Colloq. U. S.]

Calico \Cal"i*co\, n.; pl. Calicoes. [So called because first imported from Calicut, in the East Indies: cf. F. calicot.]

1. Plain white cloth made from cotton, but which receives distinctive names according to quality and use, as, super calicoes, shirting calicoes, unbleached calicoes, etc.

   The importation of printed or stained colicoes appears to have been coeval with the establishment of the East India Company.
   --Beck (Draper's Dict. ).

2. Cotton cloth printed with a figured pattern.

   Note: In the United States the term calico is applied only to the printed fabric.

   Calico bass (Zo["o]l.), an edible, fresh-water fish ( Pomoxys sparaides) of the rivers and lake of the Western United States (esp. of the Misissippi valley.), allied to the sunfishes, and so called from its variegated colors; -- called also calicoback, grass bass, strawberry bass, barfish, and bitterhead.

   Calico printing, the art or process of impressing the figured patterns on calico.

1530s, kalyko, corruption of Calicut (modern Kozhikode), seaport on Malabar coast of India, where Europeans first obtained it. In 16c. it was second only to Goa among Indian commercial ports for European trade. Extended to animal colorings suggestive of printed calicos in 1807, originally of horses.

a. Having a pattern of red and contrasting areas, resembling the color of calico cloth. n. 1 A kind of rough cloth, often printed with a bright pattern. 2 A cat with fur of the colors black, white and orange.

1. n. coarse cloth with a bright print

2. [also: calicoes (pl)]

1. adj. made of calico or resembling calico in being patterned; "calico dresses"; "a calico cat"

2. having sections or patches colored differently and usually brightly; "a jester dressed in motley"; "the painted desert"; "a particolored dress"; "a piebald horse"; "pied daisies" [syn: motley, multicolor, multicolour, multicolored, multicoloured, painted, particolored, particoloured, piebald, pied, varicolored, varicoloured]

3. [also: calicoes (pl)]

Calico (in British usage, 1505, AmE "muslin") is a plain-woven textile made from unbleached and often not fully processed cotton. It may contain unseparated husk parts, for example. The fabric is less coarse and thick than canvas or denim, but it is still very cheap owing to its unfinished and undyed appearance.

The fabric was originally from the city of Kozhikode (known by the English as Calicut) in southwestern India. It was made by the traditional weavers called cāliyans. The raw fabric was dyed and printed in bright hues, and calico prints became popular in Europe.

Calico is a plain-woven cotton textile. It may also refer to:

Calico or nacreous goldfish are goldfish of any breed that have a type of scale that is intermediate between the metallic type of scales and the transparent type. These scales have a slight sheen that produces a pearly appearance. The name "calico goldfish" came about because the first fish that were introduced with this type of scales had a mottled calico pattern with several colours.

Calico goldfish often have patches of red, yellow, grey and black along with dark speckles on a blue background. This coloration usually extends over the fins.

Although calico coloration occurs in many fancy goldfish varieties such as telescope eyes, fantails, ryukins, orandas, and ranchus, the nacreous scale characteristic is usually exclusive to the shubunkins which are single-tailed fish that are similar to the common goldfish and could grow up to 12 inches in length.

CALICO, full name The Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium, is a non-profit, self-governing, international organization devoted to the dissemination of information concerning language learning technology.

It was founded in 1983 at Brigham Young University to promote the production of serious contributions to Computer Assisted Language Learning ( CALL) systems and their use. In doing so it organises annual conferences and workshops on language learning, teacher education, publishes books on learning and distance learning, reviews and evaluations of CALL courseware and software. It publishes a journal three times yearly and also awards annual prizes for certain fields of language learning technology.

CALICO is governed by a board of seven members, one Executive Director appointed by the board and six elected by the membership for three-year terms, currently drawn (2009–2010) from the faculties of University of Pittsburgh, University of Waterloo, Simon Fraser University, Penn State University, Michigan State University, Ohio University, and Carnegie Mellon University

Each year, CALICO confers awards for:

• an Outstanding CALICO Journal article from the articles published in the preceding year's volume. The award is based on the importance of the topic addressed in the article, quality of research, and contribution to the field of computer-assisted language learning.
• a non commercial (cost-free) website of language-learning resources, created and/or maintained by CALICO members.
• an Outstanding Graduate Student, conferred by the CALICO Executive Board.

Calico LLC is an independent research and development biotech company established in 2013 by Google Inc. and Arthur D. Levinson with the goal of combating aging and associated diseases. In Google's 2013 Founders' Letter, Larry Page described Calico as a company focused on "health, well-being, and longevity." The company's name is an acronym for "California Life Company".

In August 2015, Google announced plans to restructure into Alphabet Inc., wherein Google and Calico would become two of the subsidiaries of the new company along with others. This restructuring was completed on October 2, 2015.