Meaning

noun raising silkworms in order to obtain raw silk

noun the production of raw silk by raising silkworms

originPossibly borrowed from French sériculture, a modification of French sériciculture (“sericulture”) (or directly from sériciculture), from Late Latin sēricum (“Chinese goods, especially silk”) + French culture (“crop; culture”). Sēricum is derived from Latin sēricus (“of or pertaining to the Seres or Chinese; (by extension) made of silk, silken”), from Sēres (“northern Chinese people”), from…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0