Why is a jumper so called

My university's students' union is obsessed with advertising and selling them. What about a Fleece? It is different than a sweater, sweatshirt or hoodie which is really just a hooded sweatshirt to me I personally don't like to call it a hoodie becasue it sounds too childish, and I have never liked the term wife-beater, but often use both of them just to be very clear what I am talking about.

I also believe that the Wife-Beater term more came from episodes of Cops over Streetcar. For examples, search Google Images using 'class-a blouse' as a search phrase. There is also a verb sense of "blouse", but that seems out of the context of this article.

I'm not sure if it has to have buttons or not or if it can be a pullover sweater vest. It's not nice to wonder not-nice things about other people's Better Halves, Andrew Sherman. See World Wide Words on the subject. You forgot "string vest. In the usage I'm familiar with, it does not require a "bottom. I suddenly feel like I'm on a fetish board. Especially if it's rather baggy and shapeless, I might call it a sleeveless pullover. If it's tighter and more trendy, probably a tank top.

I'm afraid I just can't resist this link. Where's me jumper! Um, sorry. For what it's worth not much, I'm sure I only own one "sweater west" and the nice, little ol' ladies who sold it to me in Durham referred to it as a "slipover". So I've adopted this term, myself. I don't think we ever used "jumper" - rather English? In Lowland Scotland, my family used jersey and sweater. In particular you wore a jersey when you played rugby.

Or went out sailing or fishing or golfing. But I think we may have called them sweaters for cricket - I'm not certain of that. This is long; the subject has always interested me. Once again, my AmE differs. I think, as is often the case, it's not just regional but age-related. I think "shirt" is likely to be used more broadly by older people. Someone much younger than I might easily stretch things to call a jacket a "top," and I probably wouldn't, unless it was a variable-use item like a hoodie.

If my brother had walked into the living room bare-chested, my Dad would have said, "put on a shirt" meaning "cover yourself" where I would just say "top," unless we were going out to a nice restaurant, in which case, "shirt".

I never heard "wifebeater" used about clothing until the undershirt's most recent emergence as fashion. I've been trying to find the correct name, that is, a name people would recognize, since I wore them in the 70's. I used to call them "Grandpa undershirts", because my grandfather wore them when working in his garden, but that's not very useful.

Otherwise it was the cumbersome "sleeveless undershirt. It was part of the accepted rough humor amongst his group, along with all the names he was called for being a Brit, and those traded by his Irish, German, Korean, etc. I see them marketed as "A-shirts" for the shape? And while everyone knows what they are now, I still don't know what to call them. For fun, I asked my teenage consultant about the word "cardigan", and it was vaguely familiar from BrE books, perhaps , but she couldn't define it, apparently because the garment itself is unknown to her - too unfashionable for words.

A person who's ish and up might recognize it, if only as part of the brief twinset revival, but "cardigan" isn't really part of the vocab for many people under 35 here, I'd guess, except for the few into the preppy look. So, to their age group, a "sweater" is a pullover. When it is one of those lightweight knitted numbers you definitely can't wear over anything but a bra or slip, it's a "top. Thanks for your comments, Kay, but one bit doesn't sit right: "A person who's ish and up might recognize it, if only as part of the brief twinset revival, but "cardigan" isn't really part of the vocab for many people under 35 here, I'd guess, except for the few into the preppy look.

Certainly, the things aren't unknown in the unders I work with that age group--they wear them! It was Americans calling cardigans sweaters that got our discussion going at home, and both the younger and older American set were calling cardigans sweaters --so it seems not to refer specifically to pullovers, as you seem to be claiming. If you are claiming that, then what do they call cardigans in your neck of the woods? For Kay: I believe the "A" in "A-shirt" comes from "athletic" or maybe athletics?

For me, "gilet" in French has a primary meaning of AmE "vest", worn with a three-piece suit. But in practice I've also heard it used with a broader meaning of any light jacket, knit or other. Interesting suggestion re 'tank top', but I would suggest that this is a relatively modern term, possibly adapted in turn from the AmE definition!

My Grandad would always have referred to that king of top as a 'pullover' - in that sense that you would pull it over a shirt to be a bit warmer. Which is probably a subject for another time. The sleeveless singlets worn by Australian rules footballers are still called guernseys. The white thick-knit Irish garments I used to call Aran jumpers are now generally called Aran sweaters in Ireland.

I don't know if this is to encompass the cardigan variant; they are mostly purchased by American tourists in any case. Relatedly, American sports fans talk about their team's uniform where Brits say kit or strip the latter focus s ed more on the colo u rs than the physical clothing.

As regards shirts: for me, by default a shirt has buttons, long sleeves, and a stiff collar and cuffs. A casual shirt 's cuffs and collar may be soft. A grandfather shirt has no collar, presumably from the good old days when collars were detachable for separate washing and starching. A polo shirt has a soft collar, short sleeves, and perhaps a couple of buttons at the neck as distinct from a polo-neck , which is like a turtleneck but lighter.

A t-shirt has no collar or buttons. A football shirt is for playing football FSV of football. AmE jean shirt is BrE denim shirt. I hadn't given much thought to top , but I don't recall having ever applied it to a man's garment; it may simply be that the narrower range of styles of men's upper garments is adequately covered by more specific terms, with no call for a vague fall-back term.

It is used in compounds, such as track suit top ; the complement of which is probably track suit bottoms , though track pants is gaining currency, helping to bridge the Transatlantic Pant Divide. In BrE and AmE dress has been replacing frock and one sense of gown since the nineteenth century.

Gansey actually comes from the Norse Norwegian word ganse meaning a jersey, sweater, pullover, and has nothing to do with Guernsey! The one piece, seamless garment comes from Scandinavia originally. Let's not get into footwear in the comments, please!!

I'll be happy to do a separate entry on it, and don't want interesting discussions about it to be hidden away here. I've found tabbards on the Oasis and TopShop order sites, but they don't seem to be quite what you're describing, Oftroy. For example: this one. Like gil l et, we have tab b ard--I only have the one 'b' variant in the only US dictionary to hand the Official Scrabble Player's Dictionary! Not the perfect source!

This describes a historical garment. Just checked and no double 'b' tabbard in my Concise Oxford either. At home, so it's not the most current edition, though. The current OED gives the one-b variant as the main spelling, and includes the following definition for the modern garment: "A fashionable slimly cut ladies' jerkin or similar garment with short or no sleeves; spec. I call just about any team-sport top a jersey.

FWIW, kit and hockey have been discussed on the blog in earlier posts. What you called a sweater vest and said British English calls a waistcoat, I have also seen called a slipover on a British knitting blog. She devotes a whole post to slipovers here. This post made me remember that when I, as an American, lived in Ireland I heard the term "string vest" in reference to what I would call a spaghetti strap tank. Is that what it would be called in BrE?

Lynne, I've missed your blog entries I'd never heard the term "gillet" before moving to England. To my American ears, it always sounds incredibly pretentious and silly! Around here Oxfordshire , "gillet" seems to refer to any type of garment I would call a "vest" It doesn't seem to matter from what material it's fashioned.

The normal word I would use for jersey ot jumper is sweater. I presume I would call a cardigan a cardigan but as I would never wear one! The top of a track suit is called a tank top, and the pants are called track-suit bottoms.

As others have said, shirt has a double meaning. It would mean a shirt with a collar as opposed to a T shirt or a sweatshirt or a tunic, but we would say "put on a shirt" to somebody who was naked from waist up. In re 'Guinea tee', the common term for sleeveless undershirts when I was a child in Chicago, on the playgrounds was a term I now shudder to think I EVER used: 'dago tee,' also derogatory towards Italians.

Thank goodness we finally started calling them tank tops and iI had something to say that wasn't half a sentence of description This properly refers to a thin knitted sleeved top!

I had an interesting discussion with my Australian sister-in-law about this. She didn't really know. I know I'm late Hmm, It appears no one has mentioned 'shell' yet for a woman's top. Unless I missed it. I never heard the term until a few years ago when shopping with a girlfriend.

Here in the American mid-west, a cardigan is a button-up or the rare zippered sweater, and a pull-over is sweater with a solid front you pull over your head.

I prefer cardigans but they are far less common. A shell is a particular kind of women's top--the type of simply-shaped thing that one wears under a suit jacket. Since I find that in the OED, unmarked for dialect, there's no reason to think it's regional. A shell suit is another matter I suspect the differentiation between a goalkeeper wearing a jersey and the players wearing shirts is that the goalie has to keep warm, so has long sleeves, but players are running about so get hot and have short sleeves.

I have noticed for a few years now that my older sister, who is 18, uses the word sweater interchangeably with sweatshirt. To me and many of my generation, I think , a sweater is anything on top that is made out of really nice material where you can see the lines kind of put together nicely.

A t-shirt is an informal shirt that carries a team name or something, no cap sleeves and not fitted. The efforts of English-speaking Christian missionaries has resulted in English becoming a second language for many other groups.

Old English consisted of a diverse group of dialects, reflecting the varied origins of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms established in different parts of Britain. The Late West Saxon dialect eventually became dominant; however, a greater input to Middle English came from the Anglian dialects.

Global variation among different English dialects and accents remains significant today. Scots, a form of English traditionally spoken in parts of Scotland and the north of Ireland, is sometimes treated as a separate language. Ginny Weasley asking her mother where her jumper was. It made no sense to me as American. It seemed like such a random request. Jumper was always used for pullover garments to keep warm, knitted of course!

American English is a dialect derived from immigrants from the Britain who were not well educated in the language, and contained many British dialect words, and modified by all those foreign immigrants that went to the Land of the Free especially the Germans. It is not the words used that bothers me, it is the pronunciation of multi syllabic words. Americans always put the emphasis in the wrong place, and sound like idiots.

Why do you pronounce buttocks like Butt Ox? I suggest you stay clear of words containing two or more syllables. I find the word Sweater sounds rather disgusting. Who wants to wear something that makes you sweat? Pullover is another word for Jumper. So jumper will become obsolete like pinafore, smock or those other words people have used here. In Australia we use other words for clothing you may not understand: Jersey, Cardigan, Guernsey.

Look them up, and learn another English dialect. Hi all. We knew this article of clothing as a Jumper, Pullover, Sweater, Jersey.

All were the same but style and occasion often led to word association. A cardigan to me is something different and was something that buttoned up at the front, fairly loose fitting and often but not always quite heavy. It was also not unusual to have two pockets on the front. My understanding of these words came from my mum and dad and other adults and presumably, their understanding came from their parents.

V neck so you could see the shirt and tie underneath. Cannot remember wearing crewe necks too often as a kid and for some reason, I tend to associated the crewe neck with 3 things. Some fancy Dan bloke, often seen in old British films wearing a cravat under it or bizarrely Steve McQueen as the clean cut all American boy in films again.

The sweater was associated with the roll neck and in my mind, associated with Naval and military types again films drove this thought and outdoor, cold weather types like farmers, shepherds etc.

Again, teachers and academics are associated with roll neck sweaters, often with leather patches on the elbows. There was also the polo neck pullover which was really a fashion garment and usually light weight. Anyway, that is my take on it. I am not saying it is right but just that it is how I remember things. Chances are, I forgot some things or remembered wrongly so happy to be reminded by anybody who remembers something different.

You had it right in paragraph two. The english do purposely use words that are different from words used in America. There are dozens of examples of this. American English is in fact closer to the English spoken in the Colonial Period. American accents are closer to the English accent spoken in the Colonial period. Example: soccer. They had little to nothing to do with it. Kind of like what happens in england too, even though it is a very tiny, tiny, country.

Hey, can we pretty please stop calling other commenters idiots? Loving all the banter! It has clearly been around fo a long time. So nil points so far. Anyone got any other theories? As a child, I was fascinated at how Apaches and other native American Indians resembled the Indochinese.

For as long as I can remember I have always been interested in people, languages, and culture for what divides us also binds us. Ignorance is not specific to a race but to a class of lazy people who choose to speculate ideas rather than educate themselves to facts. Schur New York, HarperCollins, Although a revised edition was published around , I think the original edition is better, but having both is best. You can use these HTML tags. Switch to our mobile site. Comments are OPEN.

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Pin It. I'm originally from Wales, now living in the USA, and as the cold weather is approaching I'm determined, this year, to start using the word sweater to describe the item of clothing I'm wearing, as opposed to that which comes much more naturally to me: jumper. It'll save a lot of laughter at my expense if I can manage that. In the USA, a jumper is a shoulder-to-thigh girl's dress , whereas in the UK a jumper is a knitted garment worn over a shirt or tee by either sex. This question has more detailed descriptions.

My question is, how did these meanings for 'jumper' evolve so differently? Was there a point when they both referred to the same garment, or do they have two completely separate histories? While the because-they-can-be- jumped -into theory put forward by the WP entry for "jumper dress" is very believable, there are a couple of other sources on the net which do not subscribe to it.

Firstly, etymonline's entry for jumper reads thusly:. The word meaning "sleeveless dress" apparently is from midc. Meaning "sleeveless dress worn over a blouse" first recorded American English The linked entry for jupe reads as below:. As a woman's bodice, from World Wide Words sheds a little light to this odd evolution:. The word has evolved differently in Britain and the US; British usage has moved towards a garment that is specifically woollen, the US towards any upper-body garment for women.

This topic has also been covered on word-detective. The OED gives jumper from sense 1 meaning a loose outer jacket reaching to the hips made of canvas or coarse linen. This was worn by sailors and truckmen, and is also used to describe any similar garment such as the Inuit hooded fur jacket:. The more familiar woollen garment, or jersey sense 3a is from , but is also a "loose-fitting blouse worn over a skirt", which can be seen in this quote:.

Some five years ago the fashion-mongers gave the name of jumper to the knitted blouses ladies had been wearing under the name of sports coats.