Forms: α. 4, 6, 7 wadmoll, 5, 6 -male, 5, 6, 8 -mole, (5 warde-), 5, 7 waddemole, (6 watmol, 7 wadmol, -nall), 6, 7 wadmell, 9 -mel, 7, 9 -mall, 9 -maal, -mail, 7, 9 dial. -meal, 8 -miel, 9 -mil, 5, 8, 9 wadmal. β. 5, 6 wedmole, 6 -mell (-moll), (7 -meill, -nel). γ. 6, 7 woodmal(e, 7, 9 dial. woadmell (7 -mal, woddenell, 8 woodmeil), 9. dial. woodmail. δ. 8 corruptly wadmus. Also VADMAL, -MEL. [a. ON. vaðmál (Norw. vadmaal, with many dial. variants; MSw. vaþmal, -maal, Sw. vadmal, Da. vadmel) believed to represent an earlier *váðmál, f. váð cloth (= OE. wǽd WEED sb.2) + mál measure.]
1. A kind of woollen cloth.
a. In England, a coarse woollen material used principally for covering horse-collars, and other rough purposes; also (esp. in the s.-w.) for petticoats, mittens, etc. Obs. exc. in wadmiltilt (see 2).
In the 16–17th c. mentioned as manufactured in Wales and at Witney (Oxon).
1392. Earl Derby’s Exped. (Camden), 158. Pro iiijxx viij vergis wadmoll ad ij d. ob. pro saccis.
1404. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 395. Item j pannus de wadmale pro rebus cariandis.
1423. in Rolls Parlt., IV. 241. Item, III peces de Wadmole rouge, contenantz XX alnas di., pris. v s.
1425. in Kennett, Par. Antiq. (1695), 574. In v. virgatis de Waddemole emptis pro coleris equinis … ii sol. i den.
1436. Libel Eng. Policy, in Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 160. [Imports from Spain] Iren, wolle, wadmole, gotefel, kydefel also.
1485. in Compotus Rolls Obedient. St. Swithun’s, Winch. (1892), 383. Et in solutis pro le Wedmole ad cooperiendum coleres equorum xvjd.
1502. Priv. Purse Exp. Eliz. York (1830), 81. For dyeng of cclxxij yerdes of wardemole blewe and murrey for the Quenes barge.
1525. Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. ccxv. 274 b. Many had no armure, but their cootes of wadmoll [Fr. de gros bureaulx].
c. 1580. Direction for divers trades of marchaundize, in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1914), XXIX. 516. Item, for all the partes of Galicia … flaninge and wedmoles of Wales.
1598. Stow, Surv. (1603), 286. A market house for the sale of Woolen bayes, Watmols Flanels and such like.
1627. Capt. J. Smith, Sea Gram., vi. 27. Which is what you call a Tilt, couered with wadmall in your Wherries.
1662. Ir. Act 14 & 15 Chas. II., c. 8. Bk. Rates, Mittins of Wadmol the dozen pair, 00 09 00.
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 279. Of their worst [tail wool] they make Wednel [at Witney] for Collar-makers.
1695. Kennett, Par. Antiq., Gloss., Waddomole, now called Woadmel, and in Oxfordshire Woddenell, a course sort of stuff us’d for the covering of the collars of cart-horses.
1710. D. Hilman, Tusser Rediv., Sept. (1744), 119. Sedge Collars [for plough-horses] are by much the lightest and coolest, indeed not so comely as those of Wadmus, but will serve a good Team well enough.
1721. C. King, Brit. Merch., I. 291. Wadmole alias Wadding, 830 Yards.
1750. Blanckley, Nav. Expositor, 189. Woodmeil, a hairy coarse Stuff made of Island Wool, and supplied to the Carpenters of Ships … for lining of Ports, &c.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Wadmal, a very coarse and thick kind of woollen manufacture.
b. In Scotland, a woollen fabric woven in Orkney and Shetland. Now only Hist.
Down to the 17th c. the taxes of Orkney and Shetland were paid in wadmal and other commodities.
1572. in Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 1575, 642/2 (Zetland). 12 den. pro qualibet ulna sive cuttella 24 cultellarum panni lanei, vulgo wadmell.
1577. in D. Balfour, Oppress. Orkney & Zetland (1859), 18. Thair clayth, callit Wadmell, quhilk is ane dewitie thai pay to the Kingis Majestie … zeirlie.
1654. Blaeu’s Atlas, Scotia, 148. Pannus quidam ipsis [Hethlandicis] est crassa ex lana confectus, patrio idiomate τὸ Wadmeal dictum.
1774. E. Gifford, in G. Low’s Orkney, etc. (1879), 143. Payment to the Crown was called Scatt, which was paid in butter, oil, and a sort of very coarse cloth called Wadmiel.
1821. Scott, Pirate, v. Her upper garment … was of a coarse dark-coloured stuff, called wadmaal, then much used in the Zetland islands, as also in Iceland and Norway.
1884. Sheriff Rampini, in Good Words, Nov., 746/1. All the women … in scarlet petticoats of Shetland ‘wadmal.’
c. A woollen fabric worn by country people in Scandinavia and Iceland. Sometimes in mod. Sw. or Da. form: see VADMAL, -MEL.
c. 1682. J. Collins, Salt & Fishery, 84. The general Employment of the People [in Iceland] is either Fishery or the making of Wadmoll, which is a course sort of woollen Cloth, made of their Sheepes Wool.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 10 (Iceland). They likewise manufacture a coarse kind of cloth, which they call wadmal.
1845. [C. H. J. Anderson], Swedish Brothers, 114. The picturesque dresses of the Dalecarlian women, the scarlet kerchiefs, mingling with the bluish-grey of the wad-meal or striped tartan.
1894. Field, 1 Dec., 838/1. No day is too long … for poor old Niels in his one garment of coarse wadmal.
2. attrib. or quasi-adj. chiefly in sense ‘made of wadmal’; wadmiltilt (see quot. 1898 and cf. quot. 1627 in 1 a).
1541. Will J. Norman (Som.). My dau. Margerie one wedmole petycote.
1544. Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1844), I. 206. Ane schip of fyr … with hir hale salis of wadmale claith.
1598. in Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 367/1. Malcolme … to have the wedmell dett thairof becaus he wantit the samin at his entrie.
a. 1700. in Alice M. Earle, Costume Colon. Times (1894), 253. Wadmoll mittens … a woadmell petticoat.
1821. Scott, Pirate, x. Her dark wadmaal cloak.
1828. Spearman, Brit. Gunner (ed. 2), 23. Wadmiltilts.
1898. Visct. Dillon, in Archæol. Jrnl. (Inst.), Ser. II. V. 296, note. In artillery inventories of to-day will be found wadmiltilts, a kind of tarpaulin covering for stores.
