I learned a new word today: trilby, which is a particular kind of hat. Link The book I am reading was written by an English author, and this word is "chiefly British." Is it used much in England? The hat, from the Wikipedia description, seems a bit fiddly:

quote:

the trilby is distinguished by a very narrow brim that is sharply turned up in the back and a short crown, which is pinched in the front and indented into a teardrop shape in the center.

Hats generally aren't worn as much nowadays as previously but trilby is a fairly common word. My father had three of them.

As for the definition I suspect that any definition of a particular item of clothing that attempts to actually describe it would be just as fiddly. For example, just off the top of my head if I try to describe T-shirt so that it can accurately be identified by someone who has never seen one I might get something like

quote:

A garment for the upper body which covers the whole body but which has sleeves no more than four inches long. Typically the body is formed of one piece and does not have buttons though one or two buttons are the neck are often seen. May be plain or carry a design.

Or I could just go with "short-sleeved, buttonless shirt" which is close enough but doesn't necessarily give an accurate description.

I knew there was also a novel called Trilby, but wasn't certain of the connection between the two. Wikipedia says:

"The hat's name derives from the stage adaptation of George du Maurier's 1894 novel Trilby; a hat of this style was worn in the first London production of the play, and promptly came to be called 'a Trilby hat'."

Bob, good point about the t-shirt. I looked up blouse, and here is what it says in Wikipedia:

quote:

A blouse is a loose-fitting upper garment that was formerly worn by workmen, peasants, artists, women and children.[1] It is typically gathered at the waist (by a waistband or belt) so that it hangs loosely ("blouses"[2]) over the wearer's body.[3] Today, the word most commonly refers to a woman's shirt[4] but can also refer to a man's shirt if it is a loose-fitting style (e.g. poet shirts and Cossack shirts).[5] Traditionally, the term has been used to refer to a shirt which blouses out or has an unmistakably feminine appearance.

I realize that "blouses over" is a phrase sometimes used, but many women blouses are not loose these days.