Vardingale

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A hooped undergarment worn beneath a skirt in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to hold the outer dress wide at the hips
2. An early modern framework of stiffened hoops or cane worn under a gown to give the skirt a broad, flat, bell-like shape
3. A wide petticoat stiffened with hoops, fashionable in Tudor and Stuart England and used to create an exaggerated silhouette

Etymology: Vardingale is an obsolete spelling of farthingale, the wide hooped or padded frame worn under a skirt to make it stand out from the body. The name came into English as an early borrowing, and the Hobson-Jobson-style spellings such as "vardingale" show English speakers reshaping an unfamiliar foreign word to fit their own sounds. The foreign source was Middle French "verdugale", itself taken from Spanish "verdugado". That Spanish word comes from "verdugo", meaning "rod" or "switch", so the underlying idea is something made of slender rods or hoops. The garment's structure, not its cloth, gave it its name.

Synonyms: farthingale, hoop skirt, crinoline