A Blouse Was Once a Workman's Smock
A blouse is a woman's shirt. The French word originally meant a loose smock worn by labourers.
A blouse is a loose upper garment, now usually a woman's shirt. In nineteenth-century France it meant something quite different: the *blouse* was the loose blue smock worn by workmen and peasants, so recognisable that revolutionaries were sometimes called *les blouses*. English borrowed the shape and lost the class association.
- A woman's shirt. *A silk blouse.*
- A loose smock. *A workman's blouse.*
- A military jacket. *A dress blouse.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | blouse | A white blouse. |
| Plural | blouses | Cotton blouses. |
| Verb | blouse | Blouse the trousers. |
| Related | smock | A painter's smock. |
| Related | tunic | A linen tunic. |
How it is used in a sentence
- She wore a blouse and skirt.Everyday.
- Blouse your trousers into your boots.Military verb: gather and tuck.
- The smock was the working ancestor.Same shape, different wearer.
Shirts and their relatives
- Blouse — loose, usually women's
- Smock — a loose protective overshirt
- Tunic — a long straight garment
- Shirt — with a collar and buttoned front
- Camisole — a light sleeveless undergarment
From French *blouse*, a workman's smock, of uncertain earlier origin. English adopted it in the nineteenth century.
Blouse or shirt?
Blouse usually means a woman's garment, often looser and without a stiff collar. Shirt is the general word.
What does *blouse* mean as a verb?
To gather a garment so it puffs out, as when trousers are tucked into boots.