Etymologically
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jean

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /dʒeɪn/, US /dʒiːn/[1]

Etymology

It is short for jean fustian, Middle English Gene fustian “fustian of Genoa”,[2][3][4][5] from Gene, Jene, the English name of Genoa,[3][4] borrowed from Old French Janne (modern French Gênes),[4][6][7] from Medieval Latin Janua (“Genoa”), Latin Genua,[4][2] the city where the cloth was first made.[7] Compare the obsolete jane, a small silver coin of Genoa current in 15th-century England.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Genoese, of Genoa, as an adjective: 1495 in the OED, the late 15th century in the SOED,[8][6] while Etymonline has Geayne for the cloth in the mid-15th century.[8][6][2]

Semantic evolution

A twilled cotton cloth, a kind of fustian, is from 1567 in the OED and MWU, at first spelled jene, geane.[8][3] The plural jeans, garments of this cloth, is from 1843 in the OED and the 19th century in Hoad,[8][4] and became the standard form by the mid-19th century;[2] in 19th-century America jeans was a homespun wool cloth for men's clothes, often dyed brown with walnut.[2] Close-fitting trousers of denim or similar cloth are jeans by 1908, noted as typical of teenagers from 1959;[2][8] they were not originally blue.[2] The cloth is now usually denim.[6]

Timeline

  • mid-15th century – Geayne, the cloth.[2]
  • 1495 – of Genoa.[8]
  • 1567 – a twilled cotton cloth.[8][3]
  • 1843 – jeans, garments.[8]
  • by 1908 – jeans, trousers.[2]
  • 1970 – jeaned, wearing jeans.[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A heavy, strong twilled cotton cloth, now usually denim.
  2. (jeans) Trousers made of denim or a similar cloth.

Word family

  • jeaned
  • jeans

Usage notes

Jean as a name is the French equivalent of John, and as a woman's name the French form of Jane; in this use it is pronounced /dʒiːn/ in English.[2][1]

References

  1. ^ a b Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press