Named for a fabric made in Baghdad, it's a cat with a striped or brindled coat
The common tabby cat derives its name from silk with a wavy 
pattern, from... [DOC] [TLE] tabbies - Memidex dictionary/thesaurus [PAR] "tabbies" definitions: a domestic cat with a gray or tawny coat mottled with black ... 
of, relating to, or made of tabby | striped and mottled with darker color; "brindled" (
14 ... a fabric with a watered pattern, especially silk or taffeta | (especially of cats) 
.... al-Attabiya, the name of a section of Baghdad, Iraq, which is associated with... [DOC] [TLE] tabby - alphaDictionary * Free English On-line Dictionary [PAR] It can be used as-is for an adjective as in tabby cat, tabby weave or, in the ... that 
doesn't preclude our reviving its use today: "Maud Lynn Dresser came to the 
party in a tabby dress that must have been made at the time when all tabby was 
still striped.