antimacassar

anti- +‎ macassar

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌæn.tɪ.məˈkæs.ə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌæn.tɪ.məˈkæs.ɚ/

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• Rhymes: -æsə(ɹ)

antimacassar (plural antimacassars)

1. A cover for the back or arms of a chair or sofa, originally to prevent them from being soiled by macassar oil.
   • 1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, OCLC 305520:

     She was particularly fond of animals, and, besides her canary, whose cage hung on a nail in the massive wall of the keep by day, to the great annoyance of prisoners who relished an afterdinner nap, and was shrouded in an antimacassar on the parlour table at night, she kept several piebald mice and a restless revolving squirrel.

   • 1942, Emily Carr, “Mrs. Crane”, in The Book of Small‎:

     […] how could anyone on a three-legged stool under the high top of the sofa sleep? Especially if the fringe of an antimacassar lolled over the top and tickled your neck?