You know, I hate the word "blouse." I always have. As a person of the female gender I am supposed to refer to certain of my torso-covering garments as "blouses" but since I hate that word I never do. I have t-shirts and shirts but I don't have "blouses." (I don't care much for the word "top" either. It sounds like an adjective looking for a noun.) Anyway, chalk this up to Reason No. 4571 why I would never have made it in the military .
(Via Meryl Yourish.)
Posted by Andrea Harris at July 7, 2003 12:31 AMI have always been under the impression that somehow a "blouse" was differentiated by a shirt because it's somehow poofier and looser and cut slightly differently.
I have also read about men wearing blouses in other cultures. Which, once again, never left me quite certain as to what the difference was, except I assumed it must be looser and poofier or something.
So, you know, women wear shirts or blouses, depending on what they feel like wearing. A shirt's a shirt and a blouse is a blouse.
Am I just all wrong here?
Posted by: Dean Esmay at July 7, 2003 at 06:00 AMTo further your confusion, there are TWO military useages of the word "blouse";
1) The "coat" of the Class A uniform [the one with the shiny buttons]
2) The act of stuffing your trousers into your boot-tops. This is normally done to the Battle dress Uniform [BDU], unless you are a paratrooper, in which case you can blouse the trousers of your class A green uniform [which when worn without its blouse, becomes the Class B uniform]
After 27 years it seems so simple . . .
Posted by: OldFan at July 7, 2003 at 07:16 AMI have always thought of blouses as being more dressy - silky, lacy, ruffley, etc. And real men don't wear blouses. What the heck is the matter with the military anyway. I know they have a language all their own but "blouse"? SHEESH!
Posted by: Lynn S at July 7, 2003 at 09:59 AMIf you read 19th Century writings, they use the word for men and women's clothing. The usage for womens' clothing only seems to have started in the 20th Century.
Posted by: Dark Avenger at July 7, 2003 at 12:43 PMAnd 'blouse' is Aus/NZ slang for either a) a woman, b) an effeminate man or c) a gay man. As in the question "What are ya - a shirt or a blouse?"
Posted by: Steven Chapman at July 7, 2003 at 06:39 PMAs someone who considers spice to be the obvious plural of spouse (based only on very limited experience), I also tend to use blice as the plural of blouse.
Posted by: triticale at July 8, 2003 at 03:52 PMDon't women's blouses have the buttons on the opposite side of men's shirts?
Posted by: Val at July 8, 2003 at 06:56 PMVal: all men's and women's clothes with buttons have them on opposite sides.
Posted by: David Jaroslav at July 10, 2003 at 10:47 PM