Added 10 October 2026
jeans
/d͡ʒiːnz/ noun
In Latin: genuenses Wiktionary
noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about jeans at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
Origin
From Gene(s) (also spelled Jean(s)), an obsolete English name for the Italian city of Genoa. Compare French Gênes. In the context of clothing, the term originally denoted a kind of coarse cotton (known more fully as Gene(s) fustian) that was associated with Genoa. It began to be used for trousers made of such cloth in the 19th century. At this point, the final -s was reanalysed as a plural ending.
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)