tabi

American  

[tah-bee] / ˈtɑ bi /

noun

• tabi,
  plural
• tabis
  plural

1. a covering for the foot, similar to a sock, having a separate pouchlike stall for the large toe, worn especially in Japan, often with zoris.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• tabi
  plural
• tabis
  plural

Etymology

Origin of tabi

1890–95; < Japanese, perhaps < Middle Chinese, equivalent to Chinese dānpí single-skin

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tabi tabis

There were latex socks, and the house’s signature tabi boots recreated as thigh-high Crayola-colored recycled rubber waders.

From New York Times ● Oct. 5, 2021

At one point, only the upper echelons of Japanese society wore them, but eventually, a cotton sock known as a tabi became common among all classes.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 12, 2019

Stupidest Splurge I have these Visvim tabi sneakers that were, like, $1,300.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 28, 2018

It had a shaped foot with a split toe, like a Japanese tabi sock.

From The New Yorker ● Mar. 16, 2015

When a Japanese walks out, he slips his feet into high wooden clogs, and when he comes home he kicks off the clogs at the door, and enters his home in tabi alone.

From Peeps at Many Lands: Japan by John Finnemore

For the derivation of this word from the French tabis, a kind of silk, see Wb.

From Select Poems of Thomas Gray by Robert Carruthers