Obs. exc. Hist. Also 6 carke-cloth. [Etymology uncertain:
Palsgrave’s ‘carde, clothe (? read carde-clothe) for brides’ seems to be the same word, and, if not merely a blunder, would seem to point to identity of the first element with CARDE. Some have conjectured F. carre sb. or carré adj., square; the word can hardly be CARE sb.1, though that sense has been played on.]
A cloth formerly held over (or placed upon) the heads of the bride and bridegroom as they knelt during the marriage-service.
Cf. med.L. jugalis, for which Du Cange quotes an example of 4th c., showing that it denoted a cloth placed upon the head of the bride and the shoulders of the bridegroom.
1530. Palsgr., 203/1. Carde, clothe for brides: they [i.e., the French] use none.
1534. in Peacock, Eng. Ch. Furniture (1866), 204. A care cloth of silke dornex.
1550. in Surrey Ch. Goods (1869), 42. A care cloth of silk. Ibid. (1552), 12. Item a carke clothe. Ibid., 63. Item on lynyn care cloth.
1559. Fabyan, VII. 716. Thei cam foorthe, and kneled before the altare all the masse tyme, and the care clothe was holden.
1624. W. Whateley (title), A Care-Cloth, or a Treatise of the Cumbers and Troubles of Matrimony.
1878. Rock, Text. Fabr., 72. The care cloth was a sort of canopy held over the bride and bridegroom as they knelt for the nuptial blessing.
