Skip to main content
carroting

carroting

1 9.9
A process of treating rabbit fur with chemicals so it can be made into felt
  • noun
  • Archaic
: tratamiento de pieles
  • After carroting, the rabbit fur is ready for use in making high-quality felt items.

Examples

  • The first reference I could find for the company Pellissier Jonas & Rivet was on a patents website for a fur carroting process, which, as you can see in the PDF in the previous link, refers to a way of treating animal fibers so that felt-like properties are imparted to them.

    Blog text (31)
  • Fur carroting before this time used mercury, which of course caused major problems for the workers using it.

    Blog text (31)
  • The process of carroting enhances the durability of animal fur by chemically treating it before crafting.

  • Carroting is essential for transforming rabbit fur into a soft material ideal for felt production.

Surface Forms

carroting singular
carrotings plural

Morphology

carroting = carrot (opaque) = carrot + ing

The word is formally built from 'carrot' + '-ing', but the specialized feltmaking sense is not inferable for most learners from the base form alone.

Etymology

Carroting is easy to remember because it links to carrot; one helpful story says the chemicals used on rabbit fur often left an orange, 'carrot' colour on the hide. So, carroting means treating animal fur with chemicals to prepare it for making felt hats.