sweater

Etymology

It was formed from English sweat + -er in English, an agent noun from the verb,^[2][3][4][5] in Middle English swētere.^[1] Johnson (1755) explained it the same way.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who works hard, a toiler: a1529, in John Skelton's Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng.^[2] Etymonline also dates this sense to the 1520s and Dictionary.com to 1520–30,^[3][5] while Merriam-Webster gives the 15th century for its first sense, one that sweats.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense, a person who perspires, is recorded from 1562, in William Bullein's medical writings,^[2][3] and Johnson (1755) gives only this sense: "One who sweats".^[6] From 1684 the word also meant a medicine that brings on sweating.^[2][3] In the early 18th century sweaters were London street ruffians who bullied passers-by into "sweating", a usage recorded from 1712 in Steele's Spectator.^[2][3] The sense "employer or middleman who overworks and underpays his workers" belongs to the 1840s and the vocabulary of the sweatshop: Etymonline finds it by 1843 and the OED and Green's in the Manchester Guardian of 1846.^[3][2][8] The garment grew out of athletic training: from 1828 sweaters were the clothes in which a man or a horse was exercised to sweat off weight,^[2][3] while by 1882 the singular meant a woollen vest or jersey worn by rowers and other athletes, originally to lose weight and later to keep warm before or after exercise.^[2][3][5] Etymonline thinks it was established as a fashion garment for women by about 1920, and dates sweater girl to 1939, a nickname for Lana Turner after her appearance in a tight sweater in the film They Won't Forget.^[3] In Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire dialect a sweater was a hard or troublesome job,^[9] a colloquial sense the OED records from 1851 and Green's from 1832.^[2][8]

Timeline

• a1529 – one who works hard.^[2][3]
• 1562 – one who sweats or perspires.^[2]
• 1629 – a variety of pear (obsolete).^[2]
• 1684 – a medicine that causes sweating.^[2][3]
• 1712 – one of a gang of London street ruffians.^[2][3]
• 1828 – plural, clothes for sweating off weight in training.^[2][3]
• 1846 – an employer who overworks and underpays his workers.^[2][8]
• 1851 – (colloquial) a job that makes one sweat.^[2]
• 1882 – a woollen jersey worn for rowing and other exercise.^[2][3]
• 1900 – (Winchester College slang) a servant.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A knitted or crocheted garment for the upper body, usually with long sleeves, worn for warmth; a pullover or cardigan: He pulled on a thick sweater before walking the dog.
2. A person or thing that sweats, especially heavily.
3. An employer who overworks and underpays his or her workers.
4. A medicine that causes sweating; a sudorific.

Word family

• sweaterdress
• sweater girl

Related words

• sweat
• sweatshop
• jersey
• jumper

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
7. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
9. ^ 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)