Please click the Follow button below to get updates from The Professor.

Follow this blog

Friday, December 23, 2011

Dungarees, Jeans, and Denim


Doug from Traverse City asked about the origin of the word dungarees. Those are the (usually) blue trousers made from a rough material. Most people refer to them as blue jeans.

The word shows up in English in 1613. It came from a Hindi word, dungri, which meant coarse calico. In turn, that word came from the name of the village that produced the material. The village was eventually subsumed by Bombay.

Jeans, by the way, is also eponymous. It was named after Genoa, Italy. Likewise, denim was named after Nimes, France, where the fabric was produced.


Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts Dictionary, 2nd edition

Check out Mike's program-based books here:
Amazon.com


Listen to Mike’s program in real time every Tuesday morning, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. EST, by going to wtcmradio.com and clicking on Listen Now.

There is a collection of podcasts. Go to wtcmradio.com and click on Podcasts. Scroll down The Ron Jolly Show to find the Words to the Wise audio button.


Visit The Senior Corner at seniors.tcnet.org


No comments:

LANGUAGE MYTHS #5: Not enough room to swing a dead cat, Not playing with a full deck, Not worth a tinker's damn, Posh, Rule of thumb

  Listen to the podcast here .   Not   enough   room   to   swing   a   cat   (cramped  quarters) MYTH:   The   cat   was   the   cat-o-nine...