gilet
/ˈʒɪleɪ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.90 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A bodice worn by a woman similar to a man's waistcoat; also, a decorative panel at the front of such a bodice, or worn separately.
noun
A sleeveless jacket resembling a waistcoat but generally closed at the neck; specifically, one which is padded to provide warmth.
Etymology
Borrowed from French gilet (“vest, waistcoat”), from regional Italian gileccu (Calabria), gilecco (Genoa), gelecco (Naples), ggileccu (Sicily), etc. (standard Italian gilè is borrowed from French), from Turkish yelek (“jelick; vest, waistcoat”) (ultimately from Proto-Turkic *yẹl (“wind”, noun)) with the final syllable modified to match other types of clothing such as corselet and mantelet. The Oxford English Dictionary does not regard the French word as having derived from Arabic جَلِيقَة (jalīqa), which it views as a recent borrowing from Italian into Algerian Arabic. Doublet of jelick.
Origin
- Source language: French
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈʒɪleɪ/
- British English: /ˈʒiːleɪ/