blouse

See also: blousé

English

A silver blouse worn tucked into a red skirt (photographed in 2015).

A white, floral blouse made in the style of 1940s fashion on display.

Etymology 1

1828, from French blouse (“a workman's or peasant's smock”), see that for more.

More at blee, fold.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈblaʊ̯z/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈblaʊ̯s/
• (Canada, Canadian raising) IPA^(key): /ˈblɐʊ̯s/, /ˈblɜʊ̯s/, /ˈblʌʊ̯s/, /ˈbləʊ̯s/
• (Southern US, Midland US, Mid-Atlantic US, New York City, General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈblæʊ̯z/, /ˈblæʊ̯s/
• (Pittsburgh, General South African, /aʊ̯/-monophthongization) IPA^(key): /ˈblaːz/, /ˈblaːs/
• (Northumbria) IPA^(key): /ˈbluːz/
• Rhymes: -aʊs, -aʊz
• Hyphenation: blouse

Noun

blouse (plural blouses)

1. (fashion, obsolete) A shirt, typically loose and reaching from the neck to the waist.
2. (fashion) A shirt for women or girls, particularly a shirt with buttons and often a collar; a dress shirt tailored for women.
   • 1964, Philip K. Dick, “NINE”, in Clans of the Alphane Moon, United States: Ace Books, →OCLC; republished London: HarperCollinsPublishers, 1996, →ISBN, page 112:

     She came in now, but to the closet; from it she took a simple skirt and blouse. Picking up her underclothing she departed, obviously to dress somewhere else.

3. (military fashion) A loose-fitting uniform jacket.
4. (India, Bangladesh) A short garment worn under a sari.

Synonyms

• bodice (also used for undershirts)

Hyponyms

• Watteau bodice

Derived terms

• big girl's blouse
• bloused
• blouseless
• blouselike
• blousy
• downblouse
• girl's blouse
• middy blouse
• overblouse
• peasant blouse
• peekaboo blouse
• poet blouse
• Russian blouse
• shirtwaist blouse
• underblouse

Descendants

• Tok Pisin: blaus
• → Bengali: ব্লাউজ (blauj)
• → Gujarati: બ્લાઉઝ (blāujha)
• → Hindi: ब्लाउज़ (blāuz)
• → 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

• Afrikaans: bloes
• Apache:

  Western Apache: ikaʼíí

• Arabic: بَلُوزَة f (balūza), بْلُوزَة f (blūza)
• Belarusian: блу́зка f (blúzka), блу́за f (blúza)
• Bulgarian: блу́за (bg) f (blúza)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 女襯衫 / 女衬衫 (zh) (nǚ chènshān)

• Czech: blůza (cs) f, halenka (cs) f
• Dutch: blouse (nl), bloes (nl)
• Esperanto: bluzo
• Finnish: paitapusero (fi), paita (fi)
• French: chemisier (fr) m, corsage (fr) m
• Galician: blusa f, chambra f
• German: Bluse (de) f
• Greek: μπλούζα (el) f (bloúza)
• Gujarati: બ્લાઉઝ (blāujha)
• Hungarian: blúz (hu)
• Ido: bluzo (io), korsajo (io)
• Indonesian: blus (id)
• Italian: camicia (it) f, blusa (it) f, camicetta f
• Japanese: ブラウス (ja) (burausu)
• Kabuverdianu: buluza, bluza
• Kazakh: әйел кәзекейі (äiel käzekeiı)
• Korean: 블라우스 (ko) (beullauseu)
• Kyrgyz: блу́зка f (blúzka)
• Latin: supparum n, pēlūsia
• Lithuanian: palaidinė (lt)
• Low German: Bluus (nds) f
• Luxembourgish: Blus (lb) f
• Macedonian: блуза (mk) f (bluza)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: bluse m or f

  Nynorsk: bluse m or f

• Persian: بلوز (fa) (bluz), شومیز (fa) (šomiz)
• Polish: bluzka (pl) f, bluza (pl) f
• Portuguese: blusa (pt) f
• Romanian: bluză (ro) f
• Russian: блу́зка (ru) f (blúzka), блу́за (ru) f (blúza)
• Rwanda-Rundi: ikizibaho
• Spanish: blusa (es) f
• Swedish: blus (sv)
• Tagalog: blusa (tl)
• Tamil: பிளவுஸ் (piḷavus), ரவிக்கை (ta) (ravikkai)
• Turkish: bluz (tr)
• Turkmen: köýnek
• Ukrainian: блу́зка (uk) f (blúzka), блу́за (uk) f (blúza)
• Venetan: bluxa (vec) f
• Walloon: tchimijhî (wa) m, coirsaedje (wa) m (old), blouze (wa) f, taeye (wa) f

military: a loose-fitting uniform jacket

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 工作罩衫

• Finnish: asetakki
• Italian: camisaccio m
• Polish: bluza (pl) f
• Portuguese: blusão m
• Russian: гимнастёрка (ru) f (gimnastjórka)

Verb

blouse (third-person singular simple present blouses, present participle blousing, simple past and past participle bloused)

1. To hang a garment in loose folds.
2. (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. […] "

3. (prison) The act of hiding contraband, such as drugs or weapons, in one's rectum.

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “military”): unblouse

Derived terms

• deblouse
• unblouse

Etymology 2

Noun

blouse (plural blouses)

1. Alternative form of blouze.
2. Alternative form of blowze.

Derived terms

• blousy

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)

1. alternative spelling of bloes

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bluz/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (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)

1. 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
    • → Ternate: bilus
• → English: blouse
  • Tok Pisin: blaus
  • → Bengali: ব্লাউজ (blauj)
  • → Gujarati: બ્લાઉઝ (blāujha)
  • → Hindi: ब्लाउज़ (blāuz)
  • → Japanese: ブラウス (burausu), ブルーズ (burūzu)
  • → Korean: 블라우스 (beullauseu)
• → German: Bluse, Blouse
  • → Bulgarian: блу́за (blúza)
  • → Hungarian: blúz
  • → Hunsrik: Bluse
  • → Macedonian: блуза (bluza)
  • → Russian: блу́за (blúza)
    • → Armenian: բլուզ (bluz)
    • → Georgian: ბლუზა (bluza)
  • → Serbo-Croatian: blúza
• → German Low German: Bluus
• → Italian: blusa
• → Luxembourgish: Blus
• → Norwegian: bluse
• → Ottoman Turkish: بولوز (buluz)
  • Turkish: buluz
  • → Armenian: պուլուզ (puluz) — Constantinople
• → Persian: بلوز (boluz, bluz)
• → Polish: bluza
• → Portuguese: blusa
• → Romanian: bluză
• → Spanish: blusa
  • → Tagalog: blusa
• → Swedish: blus
• → Turkish: bluz
• → Venetan: bluxa
• → Walloon: blouze

Etymology 2

belouse is earlier. The word appears already in the early 17^th century and its origin is unknown.

Alternative forms

• belouse, belouzes

Noun

blouse f (plural blouses)

1. (archaic) any one of the holes on a billiards table

Descendants

• → German: Blouse, Bluse
• → Russian: лу́за (lúza)

Etymology 3

Verb

blouse

1. inflection of blouser:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. 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)

1. (Jersey) smock

Synonyms

• c'mînsole dé molleton