jupe

Forms

jupe f (plural jupes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Italian jupa (“man's or woman's jacket of Eastern origin”), a southern Italian form recorded from 1053, which is from Arabic جُبَّة (jubba, “undergarment, long woollen garment”).^[2][3][4] The Italian word is also found as Medieval Latin juppum at Genoa in 1165 and as Italian giubba around 1300.^[2] Bloch and Wartburg and the Grand Robert say it came through Sicily,^[5][6] and Wiktionary traces it to the Old Italian form giubba.^[1]

Cognate with Old Occitan jupa, Catalan aljuba, Spanish aljuba and Portuguese aljuba.^[5][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1188 in the Chanson d'Aspremont for a padded man's doublet fitted to the chest; shortly before 1188 Partonopeus de Blois uses it for the same garment worn by a woman.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Until the early 17th century the word named a kind of doublet.^[5][3] Bloch and Wartburg explain the change of sense by the fashion of about 1623, when women's dress was left open at the front: its upper part was called corps de jupe and its lower part bas de jupe, and these were soon shortened to corps and jupe.^[5] The TLFi and the DHLF date the sense of a woman's garment hanging from the waist to 1603, and Furetière in 1690 distinguishes jupe de dessus and jupe de dessous; the word thus replaced cotillon.^[2][3]

From 1665 the plural named the skirt and petticoats together, and gave figurative phrases: cousue à la jupe maternelle in Balzac (1839), courir après les jupes (1846) and être dans les jupes de sa mère in Zola (1878).^[2][3] By likeness of shape it has named, since 1952, a cylindrical piece fitted to the lower part of an object, first in the navy, and later the air cushion of a hovercraft.^[2][3] In African French jupe-pagne is a wide wrap skirt of traditional cloth.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1188 – First record, in the Chanson d'Aspremont, for a padded doublet.^[2]
• 1603 – An inventory of the château de Chenonceaux uses it for a woman's skirt.^[2][3]
• 1613 – Last record of the sense “doublet”.^[3]
• 1665 – La Fontaine uses the plural for skirt and petticoats.^[2]
• 1690 – Furetière records jupe de dessus and jupe de dessous.^[2]
• 1846 – Balzac writes courir après les jupes.^[2]
• 1878 – Zola writes dans les jupes de sa mère.^[2]
• 1894 – The diminutive jupette is recorded.^[2]
• 1952 – First technical use, in the navy.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A skirt, a woman's garment hanging from the waist to a varying length.^[9][10]
2. The part of a dress below the waist.^[10][9]
3. Les jupes: the skirt and petticoats worn together in the past;^[9][2] être dans les jupes de sa mère, never to leave one's mother.^[9][2]
4. (technology) A cylindrical piece fitted to the lower part of an object, such as the air cushion of a hovercraft.^[3][10]

Word family

• jupon
• enjuponner
• jupette
• minijupe

Related words

• cotillon
• Arabic جُبَّة (jubba)

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 Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 19, 57b
5. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)