Blouse
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -aÊŠs
- IPA: /blaÊŠs/, /blaÊŠz/
- Rhymes: -aÊŠs, -aÊŠz
Origin
1828, from French blouse ("a workman's or peasant's smock"), of obscure origin. Three theories include:
- French blousse ("scraps of wool"), from Occitan lano blouso ("pure or short wool"), from blous, blos ("pure, empty, bare"), from Old High German blÅz ("") "naked, bare" (German bloss "bare")
- A conflation of the aforementioned and French blaude, bliaud ("a kind of smock"), from Old French bliau, also from Frankish *blīfald ("topcoat of scarlet colour"), from blī- "coloured, bright" + -fald ("crease, fold"). More at blee, fold.
- From Medieval Latin pelusia, from Pelusium, a city of Upper Egypt, a clothing manufacturer during the Middle Ages.
Derived terms
Verb
- To hang a garment in loose folds.
- (military) To tuck one's pants/trousers (into one's boots).
- 1989, Bernard C. Nalty, Strength for the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military, page 311An anonymous black soldier summed up his feelings by declaring, "If I fail to blouse my boots, or I wear an Afro, I get socked. ..."
Antonyms
- (military) unblouse