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July 17, 2023
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| Word of the Week--"denim" | | |
Definition--a course, heavy, twilled cotton cloth used for making jeans, overalls, etc.
| Discussion--Jeans made of denim are the de riguer of fashion today. Not too long ago they were dungarees not meant to be worn in "polite" company. Both denim and jeans are named after the cities in which they were first developed.
| Etymology--denim was originally called Serge de Nimes
because the cloth was first made in Nimes, France, as well as Genoa Italy. The name Serge de Nimes was eventually shortened to di Nimes, which became denim. Not surprisingly, the origin of Jeans also comes from the city of their birth, Genoa. Genoa was called "Gene" by sixteenth-century Europeans. The pants of the city became Jeans.
| | The languages below all show the same derivation. |
Foreign Translations
| German: | Jeansstoff (m) |
| French: | jean (m) |
| Dutch and Italian: | denim |
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Jane Ellis
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