[French, probably from obsolete English percalla, ultimately (probably via Urdu) from Persian pargāla, a piece of cloth, probably variant of pargāra, a circle drawn with a pair of compasses, a bit, a piece of cloth, worldly goods, from parkār, parkāl, pargāl, a pair of compasses : perhaps Old Iranian parā, forth, off, away; see per¹ in the Appendix of Indo-European roots + kar-, variant of karš-, to draw, drag (probably akin to Latin colere, to till; see CULTIVATE).]