jerkin

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a close-fitting jacket, often sleeveless and made of leather or rich fabric, worn especially by men in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

   The actor wore a velvet jerkin over his doublet for the Elizabethan scene.

Recorded in English in the early sixteenth century. Its deeper origin is uncertain; it may be related to Dutch jurk, 'dress or coat,' though that Dutch form is attested later. The garment varied by period but was characteristically close-fitting and worn over a doublet.

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