Word of the Day:
jerkin
What It Means
A type of men's garment popular in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: a close-fitting collarless jacket, with or without sleeves.
A sleeveless jacket, usually leather; a long waistcoat.
Jerkin in Context
“I booked a room at the small hotel and deposited my luggage there. I bought myself strong boots, a pair of breeches, a jerkin, and a couple of shirts. Then I turned my back upon the town and climbed.”
Did You Know?
First recorded in early 1500s. Possibly related to Dutch jurk (“dress”), itself of unknown origin and not attested before the 17th century. Derivation from Old French jo(u)rne (“day”) has been suggested.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: jerkin (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the word and reformatted its meaning, examples and origin.
Cite this entry: “jerkin.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jerkin. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
