How many people here can pronounce Chamois, the material and common purpose?

I LMAO just now.

The Van Morrison classic

Google Saint Dominic’s Preview lyrics

The default lyrics say

Shammy [unverified] cleaning all the windows

Chamois cleaning all the windows

Is a very imaginative lyric and typical of Van Morrison lyrical writing.

ShamWow.

mmm

Bonus points for the traditional material :wink:

Sheep skin

Common Purpose?

Drying water from Washed Cars

I have 4 in my garage

I think professional window washers used them to avoid streaking

I admit that I don’t fully understand the lyrics of Saint Dominic’s Preview. Even the title is thought provoking. Van Morrison is a poet.

I think it’s intended to evoke the imagination and create imagery. It’s not a narrative.

I don’t know offhand how common it is now but it used to be the material for the inner liner of cycling shorts.

Pamper what’s very important to a man.
I’d do it.

This “chamois” is not a word I’m familiar with. It’s looks French, so I’d pronounce it like “sham-wah”.

Looking it up, it’s a very interesting word, meaning a specific type of goat, or the leather from that goat, or the color of the leather of that goat, or a washcloth made from the leather of that goat, or some padding made from the leather of that goat. And not necessarily actually made from that goat skin, but some other similar material.

There’s no English cognate to “chamois”, but German has “Gämse”.

Now, I got curious.

I think we can thank the Normans and their rule of the English Isles. Just my early morning IHMO
1560 may be a stretch for that contribution. The Normans had a very long cultural reach.

It’s used as a blending tool when drawing, especially with charcoal. I sold art supplies for years and it was a common item on beginner drawing class materials lists. I got used to explaining how to say it and what it was made of.

Don’t leaving us hanging. How do you say “chamois”?

Always pronounced SHAM-ee ever since I was a wee young 'un.

Shammy.

It’s just like the famous killer whale, but said with four m’s, a silent q, and a French accent.

I’m announcing the Winner of this thread. :blush:

My dad taught me to wash my first car. You want a genuine sheep skin Chamois. Wring it out as dry as possible. It will leave a streak free shine on a car finish.

They last a long time. I have two that were bought in the 1990’s.

I was livid when a friend ruined one on a dirty wet car. Those dirt stains won’t wash out.

Ah, of course: “môbium diqkùm”.

Same, in fact I didn’t know about the fancy French spelling for a long while.

It’s also a fabric; makes very nice cold weather shirts and pants (USA terminology).

And yes, I knew how to pronounce it, as well as the other common usage for a type of cleaning cloth. But I confess that I didn’t realize they used to be sheepskin. Makes sense, though. – Ah! Apparently originally originally not sheepskin, but skin of the antelope named chamois. Makes even more sense, now.

That’s quite interesting. I wasn’t aware of that product. I can see how a sheep skin would be useful blending & shading charcoal.

SDMB is a great source of information. The people here are generous contributors of knowledge and on occasions we like to shoot the :poop: too.

A few years ago (90s?) Armor-All sold a synthetic chamois and I bought one. It’s the best drying towel ever invented and I’m pretty sure that after 20 years of use, it can’t be destroyed. As far as I can tell, they quit making them, probably because they’re indestructible. Prying. . .cold dead fingers. . .etc.

I’ve always felt comfortable knowing that in a emergency financial bind I could scrap up money by detailing cars in driveways.

My dad taught me how to properly take care of my car’s finish.

Thankfully I’ve never quite reached that level of desperation. My shoulders couldn’t take the daily abuse now. I wash and detail my SO’s car and wait a week to do mine. Gotten lazy and do it monthly.

I never learned to use a buffer and polishing compound. I leave that to the pros that know how. A careless person can burn through and ruin the paint in 90 seconds.