camisole

English

Etymology

From French camisole, from Old Occitan camisola, diminutive of camisa (“shirt”).

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkamɪsəʊl/

Noun

camisole (plural camisoles)

1. A short, sleeveless undergarment worn by women underneath a blouse, or as a form of short négligée.

   Synonyms: underbodice, negligee

   • 2004, Marisa Kula, “Lingerie Sashays into Outerwear”, in The Oregonian:

     A visible bra strap, a bit of camisole peeking, a partially exposed thong: Innerwear slinks into a new role

2. (dated) A straitjacket.
3. (historical) A light jacket with sleeves.

Derived terms

• camikini
• camiknickers
• camisoled

Translations

undergarment

Czech: košilka (cs) f Dutch: kamizool (nl) German: Leibchen (de) n, Mieder (de) n Ido: kamizolo (io) Indonesian: kamisol (id) Japanese: キャミソール (ja) (kyamisōru) Korean: 캐미솔 (kaemisol) Lithuanian: (apatinė) palaidinė (lt) Malay: kamsiol Maori: hīreti Portuguese: camisolão m Spanish: camisola f

light jacket

Czech: kamizola (cs) f, kazajka (cs) f

Verb

camisole (third-person singular simple present camisoles, present participle camisoling, simple past and past participle camisoled)

1. (dated) To straitjacket.
   • 1881, Thirty-Eighth Annual Report of the Managers of the State Lunatic Asylum, Utica N. Y., for the Year 1880, Albany, N.Y.: Weed, Parsons and Company, […], pages 54–55:

     If, in viewing the question from its sentimental aspect, you deplore the insult offered to manly dignity by camisoling a fellow-creature, let me ask if this manly dignity is not already compromised by the fact of patients covering themselves with ordure, denuding and mutilating themselves and striking those about them?

   • 1882, The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, page 821:

     He believes it better to camisole a patient than to seclude him.

   • 1884, The American Psychological Journal, volume II, page 164:

     She had been camisoled, and fastened in bed, with “ties of muslin cloth about fifteen inches wide,” and left alone for the night, during which, her struggles “had so increased the pressure of the ties as to produce considerable swelling” and increased discoloration.

Further reading

• camisole on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• semicola

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Old Occitan camisola. Compare Portuguese camisola.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.mi.zɔl/

• Audio (Canada (Shawinigan)):

  (file)

Noun

camisole f (plural camisoles)

1. (dated outside Quebec and Switzerland) camisole (short, sleeveless undergarment)
   • 1924, Emmanuel Bove, Mes Amis‎:

     Les fenêtres étaient ouvertes. Les camisoles, raidies par le vent, qui y séchaient, se balançaient comme des enseignes de tôle.

     The windows were open. The wind-stiffened camisoles which were drying there swung back and forth like sheet-metal shop signs.

2. ellipsis of camisole de force; straitjacket

Derived terms

• camisole de force

Descendants

• → English: camisole

Further reading

• “camisole”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.