Origin Story
The word jeans, too, conceals the name of a city. In the Italian port city of Genoa, a tough cotton cloth had long been woven for the work clothes of sailors and laborers. The French called the city Gênes and named the cloth made there after it — "the cloth of Genoa." This Gênes crossed into English as jean, and trousers made from the cloth came to be called, in the plural, jeans. In 19th-century America, when Levi Strauss used this fabric to make trousers for miners, the jeans we know today were born.
If denim is the cloth from Nîmes in France, jeans is the cloth from Genoa in Italy. Today's jeans are usually jeans made of denim — so two city names are gathered into a single garment.
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Online Etymology Dictionaryjean (n.): "twilled cotton cloth," c. 1500, from Middle English Gene fustian, from Old French jean fustian "fustian of Genoa," the Italian city
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Merriam-Webster Dictionaryjean: from Middle English Gene Genoa, Italy, from Anglo-French Janne, from Latin Janua
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Oxford English Dictionaryjean: from the name of the city Genoa (French Gênes), where the fabric was first made
Word Evolution
Words from the Same Root
Memory Hook
Remember jeans as the cloth of Genoa (Gênes) — together with denim (Nîmes), two city names in one garment.
""The work-clothes cloth of an Italian port became the jeans of the whole world.""
