chemise

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English chemise, also kemes,^[2] and the two forms have separate sources: kemes is inherited from Old English cemes,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Late Latin camisia (“linen undergarment, shirt”),^[5][4][2] and chemise is borrowed from Old French chemise,^[2][6][7] with the Anglo-Norman forms chemés and kemese,^[5] which is itself from the same Latin noun.^[5][2][8] In the OED's account, the word apparently went out of use in the 16th century and was then borrowed again from French.^[5] The Latin noun, also camisa,^[7][9][5] is the source of Italian camicia and Spanish camisa.^[3][9] Its further origin is uncertain.^[5] Many dictionaries take it from Germanic, often through Gaulish,^{[6][3][9][10]} comparing Proto-Germanic *hamithjan,^[3] the source of Old English hemeðe, Old Saxon hemithi, Old High German hemidi and German Hemd,^[3][9][5] and Klein and Barnhart go back to Proto-Indo-European *kem- (“to cover”).^[9][6] The OED accepts a relationship with those Germanic words but sees phonological problems in a direct borrowing; it also mentions a Celtic intermediary, or a borrowing from a cognate in a language of the Balkans.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A long shirt or shirtlike undergarment: in early Old English, as cemes in the Cleopatra Glossary.^[5][4] The French form appears before 1200 in the Trinity Homilies, for a woman's undergarment: Hire chemise smal and hwit.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

According to Jerome, about 400, camisia was the colloquial name for the linen garments worn by soldiers,^[5][11] and Isidore explained the name by the fact that people sleep in them in their beds.^[5] In early English the word covered various garments, including a priest's alb.^[11][5][2] After about 1200 the French form prevailed, with the narrower sense of a woman's undergarment,^[3] and Weekley takes the modern use as a euphemism for smock or shift.^[11] French senses followed into English: a wall lining an earthen rampart, a furnace lining and a book cover.^[5] A straight dress is recorded from 1785,^[5] Etymonline notes a short loose gown in the early 19th century and a dress hanging straight from the shoulders in the early 20th,^[3] popular in the 1920s,^[12] and each of them may be a fresh borrowing from French.^[3] Shimmy is a popular form of the word.^[11][13]

Timeline

• early Old English – cemes, a shirtlike undergarment.^[5][4] Dictionary.com has the word from before 1050.^[14]
• before 1200 – chemise, a woman's undergarment.^[2][6]
• c. 1230 – a priest's alb (obsolete).^[5]
• 1562 – a herald's robe (rare and obsolete).^[5]
• 1691 – a wall lining a medieval earthwork.^[5]
• 1785 – a straight dress of simple design.^[5]
• 1800 – the lining of a furnace (obsolete by 1843).^[5]
• 1881 – the iron core on which a gun barrel is welded.^[5]
• 1893 – a loose protective cover for a book.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A woman's loose-fitting undergarment or nightdress; a shift.^[15][12][7]
2. A loose, straight dress hanging from the shoulders, without a waist.^{[15][12][7][5]}
3. (archaic) A shirtlike garment, usually of linen and with long sleeves, once worn by men and women.^[7][5]
4. (historical) A wall lining an earthwork as a fortification.^[5][8]
5. (historical) A loose protective cover for a book.^[5][8]
6. (obsolete) A priest's alb.^[5][2]

Word family

• chemisette

Related words

• shimmy
• camisole
• camise
• camisado

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b c Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins