the.com/brassiere
French for 'upper arm support' — because nobody wanted to name it accurately.
means An undergarment worn by women to support and cover the breasts.
from Borrowed from French, where 'brassière' originally referred to a piece of armor or a child's harness/bodice protecting the upper torso — it comes from 'bras,' meaning 'arm.' So etymologically it's more about arms than anything else, which is the quiet joke in the essence above: the word drifted onto an entirely different body part than the one it literally names. The French term for the garment we mean is actually 'soutien-gorge' ('throat-support'); English speakers borrowed the older, more decorous 'brassière' and let it settle into its current meaning in the early 20th century, often shortened to 'bra.'
- name origin
- French bracière meant arm protector, not this
- patent year
- 1914, by Mary Phelps Jacob
- she used
- two handkerchiefs and ribbon
- sold patent for
- 1,500 dollars to Warner Brothers Corset