Dictionary Definition
frock n : a one-piece garment for a woman; has
skirt and bodice [syn: dress] v : put a frock on
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
-
- Rhymes: -ɒk
Noun
Translations
clerical garment
- Finnish: kaapu
Extensive Definition
Frock has been used since Middle
English as the name for an article of clothing for men and women (see
also clothing
terminology).
History of the frock
Originally, a frock was a loose, long garment
with wide, full sleeves,
such as the habit of
a monk or priest, commonly belted. (This is the origin of the
modern term defrock or
unfrock, meaning "to eject from the priesthood").
The term has been continually applied to various
types of clothing, generally denoting a loosely fitted
garment:
- From the sixteenth century to the early twentieth century, frock was applied to a woman's dress or gown, in the fashion of the day, often indicating an unfitted, comfortable garment for wear in the house, or (later) a light overdress worn with a slip or underdress.
- From the seventeenth century on, a frock is a thigh- or full-length loose outer garment worn by shepherds, workmen, and farm workers in Britain, generally of heavy linen with a broad flat collar, now usually called a smock-frock. In some areas, this traditional frock buttons up the front in the manner of a coat, while in others it is a pullover style.
- In the eighteenth century in Britain and America, a frock was an unfitted men's coat for hunting or other country pursuits, with a broad, flat collar, derived from the traditional working-class frock. Late in the eighteenth century it came to be made with a cutaway front without a waist seam and this may have evolved into the standard dress coat with horizontally cutaway fronts worn for daytime wear by the early nineteenth century and from which the modern tail coat for white tie is derived. The great coat may similarly be historically derived from the frock as it similarly is single breasted, with a high and broad collar, waist pockets, and also lacked a waist seam early in its history as can be seen in an example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
The precise historical evolution of the frock
after the second half of the eighteenth century is obscure however
the following garments are likely to have their ancestry in the
frock:
1. The great coat. 2. The dress coat ('tail coat'). 3.
The morning
coat. 4. The frock coat.
Each one of them gained features which
substantially differentiate them from the unfitted and casual
country garment which was the frock.
- Frock (especially in the phrase "short frock") is also a child's dress or light overdress.
Related terms
A frock coat is
a men's coat style of the
nineteenth
century, characterized by full skirts reaching to the lower
thigh or knee. Despite the similarity in the name, the frock coat
should be regarded as being a distinct garment quite separate from
the frock. In the French language the frock coat is
called 'une redingote', and so unlike the English language implies
no immediate relationship to the frock which is called 'une
fraque'. Indeed the modern French word for a tail coat is 'une
frac' which better betrays the historical relationship between the
tail coat and the frock. In construction the frock coat
could scarcely be more different from the frock for unlike the
latter it is usually double breasted, lacks any pockets, lacks a
high collar, has V-shaped lapels, is closely fitted and is
constructed with a waist seam.
See also
References
- Oxford English Dictionary
- Picken, Mary Brooks: The Fashion Dictionary, Funk and Wagnalls, 1957
- Walker, George: The Tailor's Masterpiece: All Kinds of Coats, 1838 revised edition, reprinted by RL Shep, 2001. ISBN 0-914046-28-4
- Waugh, Norah: The Cut of Men's Clothes 1600-1900, Routledge, 1964. ISBN 0-87830-025-2
External links
frock in German: Frock