shammy

1550s, "Alpine antelope;" 1570s, "soft leather," originally "skin of the chamois," from French chamois "Alpine antelope" (14c.), from Late Latin camox (genitive camocis), perhaps from a pre-Latin Alpine language that also produced Italian camoscio, Spanish camuza, Old High German gamiza, German Gemse (though some of these might be from Latin camox). As a verb, "to polish with chamois," from 1934. Compare shammy.

Its size is about that of a well-grown goat, and it is so agile that it can clear at a bound crevices 16 or 18 feet wide. The chamois is one of the most wary of antelopes, and possesses the power of scenting man at an almost incredible distance, so that the hunting of it is an occupation of extreme difficulty and much danger. [Century Dictionary]

1717, also chay; how chaise (q.v.) looked after it was wrangled into an English spelling and mistaken for a plural. Holmes's "Wonderful 'One-Hoss-Shay'" ("The Deacon's Masterpiece," 1858) was long common knowledge and often alluded to.

"do a suggestive dance," 1918, perhaps via phrase shake the shimmy, which is possibly from shimmy (n.), a U.S. dialectal form of chemise (mistaken as a plural; compare shammy) which is attested by 1837. Or perhaps the verb is related to shimmer (v.) via a notion of glistening light. The transferred sense of "vibration of a motor vehicle" is by 1925. Related: Shimmied; shimmying. As a noun, the name of a popular, fast, suggestive pre-flapper dance, by 1919.

The first "shimmy" dance to appear, almost simultaneously with the signing of the armistice, was greeted with a howl of derision. "Vulgar"! cried the sensitive; "Absurd"! was the verdict of the scornful; "Difficult, but darned attractive!" modern art expressed it. Then, the "shimmy" in its rightful form was presented by Gilda Grey in the Shubert extravaganza "The Gaieties of 1919". Result: a lawsuit with a rival theatrical producer, and the awakened interest of everybody in the much-discussed and condemned dance. ["Good Morning Judge! 'Shake Your Shimmy,'" in The Greenville (S.C.) News, Aug. 27, 1919]