Meaning

noun a soft suede leather formerly from the skin of the chamois antelope but now from sheepskin

noun hoofed mammal of mountains of Eurasia having upright horns with backward-hooked tips

originBorrowed from Middle French chamois, from Late Latin camox, from Gaulish camox (5th c. AD, Polemius Silvius), probably from an extinct Alpine language (Raetic, Ancient Ligurian), possibly Proto-Indo-European *kem- (“without horns”). Compare also Old High German gamiza (“chamois”) (whence modern German Gämse).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0