tunic

English

A Roman dressed in a tunic.

A young boy in tunic and trousers.

Alternative forms

• tunick (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French tunique, from Latin tunica, possibly from Semitic; see also Aramaic [script needed] (kittuna), Hebrew כותנת (kuttoneth, “coat”); or from Etruscan. Existed in Old English as tunece; unknown if term was lost and then reborrowed later.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tjuːnɪk/, /tuːnɪk/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːnɪk

Noun

tunic (plural tunics)

1. A garment worn over the torso, with or without sleeves, and of various lengths reaching from the hips to the ankles.

   Synonym: tunica

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     As soon as Julia returned with a constable, Timothy, who was on the point of exhaustion, prepared to give over to him gratefully. The newcomer turned out to be a powerful youngster, fully trained and eager to help, and he stripped off his tunic at once.

2. (anatomy, botany) Any covering, such as seed coat or the organ that covers a membrane.

   Synonyms: tunica, tunicle

   • 2015, Charlie Nardozzi, New England Month-by-Month Gardening: What to Do Each Month to Have a Beautiful Garden All Year, Cool Springs Press, →ISBN, page 132:

     Select individual bulbs that are firm and have no noticeable blemishes on them. Don't worry about the papery covering or tunic. That may or may not be in place, […]

3. Synonym of gymslip

Derived terms

• serous tunic

 

Descendants

• → Welsh: tiwnig

Translations

garment

• Bulgarian: туни́ка f (tuníka)
• Catalan: túnica (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 短袍 (duǎnpáo)

• Czech: tunika f
• Esperanto: tuniko
• Finnish: tunika (fi), viitta (fi), jakku (fi), asetakki
• French: tunique (fr) f
• German: Tunika (de) f
• Greek: αμπέχονο (el) n (ampéchono)

  Ancient: ἀμπέχονον n (ampékhonon), χιτών m (khitṓn)

• Hebrew: כֻּתֹּנֶת (he) f (kuttónet)
• Hungarian: tunika (hu)
• Irish: tuineach m, ionar m
• Italian: tunica (it) f
• Japanese: チュニック (chunikku)
• Latin: tunica (la) f
• Nahuatl: camitl (nah)
• Norman: teunique f
• Persian: کرته (fa) (korte), قرطه (fa) (qorte)
• Polish: tunika (pl) f
• Portuguese: túnica f
• Quechua: unku
• Romanian: tunică (ro) f
• Russian: туни́ка (ru) f (tuníka), блузка (ru) f (bluzka), жакет (ru) m (žaket)
• Sogdian: ܟܪܝܬܝ (kurθē)
• Spanish: túnica (es) f
• Swedish: tunika (sv) c
• Tagalog: tunika
• Turkish: tunik (tr)
• Ugaritic: 𐎋𐎚𐎐 (ktn)
• Welsh: tiwnig f

any covering, such as seed coat or the organ that covers a membrane

• Hungarian: buroklevél (hu)

Anagrams

• cut in, cut-in, cutin, incut