Blouse

How to spell blouse

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce blouse

What does blouse mean?

1. nounA loose upper garment, usually for women, gathered at the waist or cuffs and worn like a soft shirt.
2. verbTo make a garment hang in a loose, gathered fold, or to billow out in that way.

Blouse in a sentence

• noun

  She ironed a silk blouse before the interview.

• verb

  Tuck the fabric so it will blouse gently over the belt.

• noun

  The cream blouse paired neatly with her dark trousers.

• verb

  The tailor showed her how to blouse the shirt above the waistband.

Where does blouse come from?

Language of origin: French

Blouse came into English from French in the early nineteenth century, where 'blouse' first described the loose, smock-like overshirt worn by French workmen and peasants. The deeper origin of the French word is genuinely uncertain, and lexicographers have never settled it; one frequently repeated suggestion links it to Provençal '(lano) blouso', meaning short or trimmed wool, but this remains a guess rather than a proven line. What is clear is that the garment kept its loose, gathered character as the sense drifted from a labourer's overall to a soft upper garment worn chiefly by women and children. The spelling trap is purely the French 'ou' standing for the 'ow' sound, plus the soft ending that some speakers voice like a 'z'; English simply kept the French letters intact. Because the word arrived already fully formed, there is no helpful root or suffix to lean on, which is why the awkward 'ou' has to be memorised.

How the word is built

• blouse (a single unanalysable root borrowed whole from French; no native prefix or suffix)