Meanings
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Simplified etymology
Jeans originally denoted cloth made in Genoa, with this cloth sense recorded from the mid-16th century. Its use for trousers dates from the mid-19th century.
Etymology
From Gene(s) (also spelled Jean(s)), an obsolete English name for the Italian city of Genoa. Compare French Gênes. In the context of clothing, the term originally denoted a kind of coarse cotton (known more fully as Gene(s) fustian) that was associated with Genoa. It began to be used for trousers made of such cloth in the 19th century. At this point, the final -s was reanalysed as a plural ending.