"jeans" in seven languages
Meaningjeans
Spanish
/baˈkeɾos/
masc.other source · Spanish vaquero 'cowboy', from vaca (Latin VACCAM)
Always plural; Latin America says jeans or bluyín.
French
/dʒin/
masc.borrowed · English jean(s)
Singular for one pair: un jean.
Italian
/dʒins/
masc.borrowed · English jeans
Invariable plural: i jeans.
Portuguese
/ˈkawsɐ ˈdʒĩs/
fem.borrowed · English jeans
Romanian
/bludʒʲ/
masc.borrowed · English blue jeans
A plural noun, squeezed from blue jeans.
Catalan
/təˈksans/
masc.other source · Catalan texà 'Texan', from Texas
English
/dʒinz/
from Latin/French · jean fustian, from Old French Janne 'Genoa'
The Latin ancestor
IANUAM (Medieval Latin for Genoa)‘Genoa, the city’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
Jean was a sturdy cloth named after Genoa (Old French Janne), and denim is 'de Nîmes'. French and Italian took the word back from English; Spain calls them cowboy trousers, vaqueros.
English relatives: denim (from serge de Nîmes)
Learn it
In a sentence
- esHoy llevo vaqueros.
- frAujourd'hui, je porte un jean.
- itOggi porto i jeans.
- ptHoje estou de calça jeans.
- roAzi port blugi.
- caAvui porto texans.
- enI'm wearing jeans today.