"bloomer" - Word of the Day from the OED

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bloomer2

SECOND EDITION 1989

[After Mrs. Bloomer, an American lady who introduced the costume; in earlier and historical uses often with capital initial.] 

    1. a. (More fully Bloomer costume, dress): A style of female attire consisting of a short skirt and long loose trousers gathered closely round the ankles. So attrib. Bloomer principles, movement.

1851 Boston Transcript 27 May 2/3 (Th.), The Bee says the daughter of Dr. Hanson, of this city, appeared in the Bloomer suit..last week. 1851 Ibid. 29 May 2/4 (Th.), The first ‘Bloomer’ made its appearance in our city yesterday. Ibid., Quite a large number of young ladies in that city have made arrangements to attend church tomorrow in the Bloomer costume. 1853 ‘OLD ETONIAN’ Alphabet Annotated 61 Until they all the Bloomer dress assume. 1855 Kansas Tribune (Th.), Perhaps Lawrence [Kansas] is the only city in America where the majority of the ladies wear Bloomers. 1868 READE True Love II. iv. 154 At sight of Miss Courtenay in a Bloomer he was ravished. 1875 I. L. BIRD Sandw. Isl. (1880) 85 Deborah looked very piquante in a bloomer dress of dark blue.

    b. Regularly in pl. Loose trousers reaching to the knee or knickerbockers worn by women for bicycling, gymnasium practice, etc.; called also ‘rational dress’. Also, a woman's knee-length undergarment (the usual sense in later usage).
  In quots. 1862, 1863, man's attire.

1862 DICKENS Somebody's Luggage in All Year Round (Christmas) 9/1 A corporal of his country's army, in..the line of his waist, the broadest line of his Bloomer trousers, and their narrowest line at the calf of his leg. 1863 Miss Jemima's Swiss Jrnl. (1963) i. 7 Soldiers in many uniforms, some of them most laughable, their capacious bloomer costume reaching to the centre of the calf of the leg. 1895 Westm. Gaz. 25 July 8/1 Female teachers who have been riding bicycles in male attire, commonly called bloomers. 1906 GALSWORTHY Man of Property III. i. 289 She could tell you..what they were doing in Paris about wearing bloomers. 1909 Daily Chron. 5 Aug. 7/3 [The hockey girl] in her short skirts, bloomers, flannel blouse, and cloth cap. 1967 Observer 30 Apr. 29/3 The tireless search for something else has paused for a moment to put matching bloomers or shorts under the skirt.

    2. A woman who wears bloomer costume.

1851 Punch 30 Aug. 103/2 If women assume the dress of men, let them undertake men's duties; hence, every Bloomer shall be liable to be drawn for the militia, without benefit of substitute. 1853 R. S. SURTEES Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour xliii. 238 (heading) A Literary Bloomer. Ibid. 239 Lucy,a young lady of a certain agesay liberal thirtyan ardent Bloomer. 1868 READE True Love II. ii. 153 She then burst out crying, which was an unfair advantage the Bloomer took over poor Reginald.

    3. A kind of hat with a broad brim worn by ladies.

1883 Life Mrs. Prentiss vi. 177 A small shawl and my bloomer on.

    Hence bloomered a., wearing bloomer costume; bloomerism, the principles of Mrs. Bloomer as to female costume; bloomerize v. trans., to dress in bloomers; also fig.

1851 (title) ‘Bloomerism’, or The New Female Costume of 1851. 1857 C. READE Course True Love II. ii. 134 She was pretty far gone in bloomerism. 1882 LADY HARBERTON Dress Reform in Macm Mag. XLV. 456 ‘Bloomerism’ still lurks in many a memory. 1885 MRS. E. LYNN LINTON Chr. Kirkland III. i. 18 Doubtful whether they were girls Bloomerized or boys in feminine tunics. 1895 Advance (Chicago) 6 June 1287 The ‘new woman’,..though not necessarily of the bloomered type, is marching..to victory in Wisconsin. 1897 Daily News 3 Feb. 6/4 The New Woman..has fairly bloomerised journalism in the United States. 1900 Daily News 4 Dec. 6/5 In these days of Lady Wranglers and bloomered ‘sportswomen’. 1907 Westm. Gaz. 2 Oct. 1/3 The outer lines were marked by companies of..bloomered Tirailleurs 1960 Times 27 Sept. 13/6 A bloomered girl in the foreground.

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