cloth: [OE] The history of the word cloth is not known, beyond the fact that its immediate source is Germanic (German has the related kleid ‘garment’). In Old English it meant both ‘piece of fabric’ and ‘fabric in general’, and in the plural it was applied to ‘garments’ (hence modern English clothes). The verb clothe, too, probably goes back to Old English times, although it is not recorded before the 12th century.
