smock frock

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   historical: a long, loose outer garment worn especially by rural laborers and other workmen

   The farm laborer wore a linen smock frock over his clothes.

A compound of smock and frock, recorded from about 1800. Smock descends from Old English smoc, a loose garment, while frock came through Middle English and Anglo-French froc. The name was especially associated with the protective linen garments of English agricultural workers, and the plural could refer metonymically to their wearers.

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