Junius  derives  dimitie  from  Si^^it'os,  wove  of  a  double  thread ;
hence,  says  he,  (j.ovojj.t-tog,  wove  of  a  simple  thread  ;  ifoXvix^iros,
wove  of  many  threads ;  XsTtT'0[wroQ,  wove  of  a  thin  thread ;
s^ay^iro;,  samit  (samite).  The  word  is  more  probably  derived
from  dimyati,  i.e.  made  at  Damietta,  in  Egypt.  "  In  Tennis
and  Dimyat,"  says  Idrisi,  who  wrote  in  the  middle  of  the
twelfth  century,  "  they  manufacture  the  finest  dresses  of  tanned
leather,  cotton,  and  linen ;  and  the  dyed  striped  clothes  of
Tennis,  which  for  price  and  beauty  are  unrivalled,  A  single
robe,  when  embroidered  with  gold,  is    sometimes  sold  for  a


72  VERBA   NOMINALIA.
thousand  dinars  or  thereabouts  (,£400).  Those  that  have  no
gold  in  them  sell  for  one  or  two  hundred  dinars  (£35  or  £40).
The  manufactures  of  Fu  and  Damireh  and  the  neighbouring
islands,  though  of  a  very  superior  kind,  do  not  at  all  ap-
proach those  of  Tennis  and  Dimyat."  "  This  curious  passage,"
says  the  writer  in  the  Encyc.  Metrop.,  "  is  entirely  omitted
in  the  Epitome  of  Idrisi's  work,  translated  into  Latin  under
the  title  of  Geographia  Nubiensis.  The  fine  manufactures,
especially  those  of  cotton,  were  all  imported  from  the  East  in
the  Middle  Ages  ;  hence  our  calicoes  received  their  name  from
Calicut  ;  our  musselines  [muslins]  from  Miisul;  and,  if  the  con-
jecture here  made  be  correct,  our  dimities  from  Damietta."

DINITE.  An  aggregation  or  druse  of  crystals,  having  the
appearance  of  ice ;  found  by  Professor  Dini,  at  Lunigiana,
in  Tuscany.
DIOGENES'  CUP.  A  term  applied  to  the  cup-like
cavity  of  the  hand,  occasioned  by  bending  the  metacarpal  bone
of  the  little  finger.
