blouse
See also: blousé
English
![](Images/wiktionary/A_white_blouse_with_blue_flowers.jpg.webp)
A blouse
Etymology 1
1828, from French blouse (“a workman's or peasant's smock”), see that for more.
More at blee, fold.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /blaʊs/, /blaʊz/
- (obsolete) IPA(key): /bluːz/[1]
Audio (Southern England) (file)
- Rhymes: -aʊs, -aʊz
Noun
blouse (plural blouses)
- (fashion, obsolete) A shirt, typically loose and reaching from the neck to the waist.
- (fashion) A shirt for women or girls, particularly a shirt with buttons and often a collar; a dress shirt tailored for women.
- (military fashion) A loose-fitting uniform jacket.
- (India) A short garment worn under a sari.
Synonyms
- bodice (also used for undershirts)
Hyponyms
- Watteau bodice
Derived terms
- big girl's blouse
- middy blouse
- overblouse
- peasant blouse
- poet blouse
- shirtwaist blouse
- underblouse
Descendants
- → Gujarati: બ્લાઉઝ (blāujha)
- → Japanese: ブラウス (burausu), ブルーズ (burūzu)
- → Korean: 블라우스 (beullauseu)
Translations
an outer garment, usually loose, that is similar to a shirt
|
military: a loose-fitting uniform jacket
|
Verb
blouse (third-person singular simple present blouses, present participle blousing, simple past and past participle bloused)
- 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 311
- An anonymous black soldier summed up his feelings by declaring, "If I fail to blouse my boots, or [if I] wear an Afro, I get socked. […] "
- 1989, Bernard C. Nalty, Strength for the Fight: A History of Black Americans in the Military, page 311
Antonyms
- (military): unblouse
Derived terms
- deblouse
- unblouse
Noun
blouse (plural blouses)
- Alternative form of blouze
- Alternative form of blowess
- Alternative form of blowze
Derived terms
- blousy
References
- Jespersen, Otto (1909) A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles (Sammlung germanischer Elementar- und Handbücher; 9), volume I: Sounds and Spellings, London: George Allen & Unwin, published 1961, § 8.35, page 241.
Anagrams
- Belous, Lobues, besoul, boules, obelus
Dutch
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /blus/
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: blou‧se
- Rhymes: -us
Noun
blouse f (plural blouses, diminutive blouseje n)
- Alternative spelling of bloes
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /bluz/
audio (file)
Etymology 1
1788, of obscure origin. Three hypotheses are:
- French blousse (“scraps of wool”), from Occitan lano blouso (“pure or short wool”), from blous, blos (“pure, empty, bare”), from Old High German blōz (“naked, bare”) (German bloß (“bare”))
- A conflation of the aforementioned and French bliaud, bliaut (a kind of smock or robe, whence English bliaus, bliaut), from Old French bliau, also from Frankish *blīfald (“topcoat of scarlet colour”), from *blīu (“coloured, bright”) + *fald (“crease, fold”). More at English blee, fold, and bliaut.
- From Medieval Latin pelusia, from Pelusium, a city of Upper Egypt, a clothing manufacturer during the Middle Ages.
Noun
blouse f (plural blouses)
- uniform or coat with buttons down the front
- blouse d'hôpital ― hospital gown
Derived terms
- blouses blanches
Related terms
- blousard
- blouson
Descendants
- → Arabic: بَلُوزَة (balūza), بْلُوزَة (blūza)
- → Catalan: brusa
- → Czech: blůza
- → Danish: bluse
- → Dutch: bloes, blouse
- Afrikaans: bloes
- Petjo: bloes (archaic)
- → Caribbean Hindustani: blus
- → Caribbean Javanese: blus
- → Indonesian: blus
- → English: blouse
- → Gujarati: બ્લાઉઝ (blāujha)
- → Japanese: ブラウス (burausu), ブルーズ (burūzu)
- → Korean: 블라우스 (beullauseu)
- → German: Bluse, Blouse
- → Bulgarian: блу́за (blúza)
- → Hungarian: blúz
- → Macedonian: блуза (bluza)
- → Russian: блу́за (blúza)
- → Serbo-Croatian: blúza
- → German Low German: Bluus
- → Italian: blusa
- → Luxembourgish: Blus
- → Norwegian: bluse
- → Persian: بلوز (boluz, bluz)
- → Polish: bluza
- → Portuguese: blusa
- → Romanian: bluză
- → Spanish: blusa
- → Tagalog: blusa
- → Swedish: blus
- → Turkish: bluz
- → Venetian: bluxa
- → Walloon: blouze
Etymology 2
belouse is earlier. The word appears already in the early 17th century and its origin is unknown.
Alternative forms
- belouse, belouzes
Noun
blouse f (plural blouses)
- (archaic) any one of the holes on a billiards table
Descendants
- → German: Blouse, Bluse
- → Russian: лу́за (lúza)
Verb
blouse
- inflection of blouser:
- first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
- second-person singular imperative
Further reading
- “blouse”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
- boules
Norman
Etymology
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Noun
blouse f (plural blouses)
- (Jersey) smock
Synonyms
- c'mînsole dé molleton