chemise
[shuh-meez]
- a woman's loose-fitting, shirtlike undergarment.
- (in women's fashions) a dress designed to hang straight from the shoulders and fit loosely at the waist, sometimes more tightly at the hip.
- a revetment for an earth embankment.
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Origin of chemise
before 1050; Middle English < Anglo-French, Old French: shirt < Late Latin camīsa linen undergarment, shirt; replacing Middle English kemes, Old English cemes < Late Latin camīsa
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for chemise
Historical Examples
So long as she was not beneath it, she would have gone off willingly without a chemise to her back.
L'AssommoirEmile Zola
Whether she was in her chemise or in full dress did not matter.
That chemise was not hers, she would have nothing to do with it.
L'AssommoirEmile Zola
I saw Leah enter my room in her chemise and a light petticoat.
The Memoires of Casanova, CompleteJacques Casanova de Seingalt
She wanted to make a chemise to replace the only one which she possessed.
Nobody's GirlHector Malot
chemise
- an unwaisted loose-fitting dress hanging straight from the shoulders
- a loose shirtlike undergarment
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Also called: shift
Word Origin
C14: from Old French: shirt, from Late Latin camisa, perhaps of Celtic origin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for chemise
n.
late Old English, cemes "shirt," from Old French chemise "shirt, undertunic, shift," or directly from Late Latin camisia "shirt, tunic" (Jerome; also source of Italian camicia, Spanish camisa); originally a soldier's word, probably via Gaulish, from Proto-Germanic *khamithjan (cf. Old Frisian hemethe, Old Saxon hemithi, Old English hemeðe, German hemd "shirt"), from PIE root *kem- "to cover, cloak" (cf. heaven). The French form took over after c.1200. Related: Chemisette.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper