chiffon

English

a chiffon silk gown

Etymology

Borrowed from French chiffon, from Middle French chiffe (“cloth, old rag”), from Old French chipe (“rag”), from Middle English chip, chippe (“chip, shard, fragment”), from Old English ċipp (“chip, splinter, shaving”); see chip.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃɪˈfɑn/, /ˈʃɪfɑn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

chiffon (plural chiffons)

1. A lightweight, balanced plain-woven sheer fabric, or gauze, like gossamer, woven of alternate S- and Z-twist crepe (high-twist) yarns made of silk, polyester, or cotton.

   Her dresses are made from these marvelous chiffons.

2. Any purely ornamental accessory on a woman's dress, such as a bunch of ribbon, lace, etc.

Derived terms

• chiffon cake

Translations

sheer silk or rayon fabric

• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: xifó m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 雪紡／雪纺 (xuěfǎng), 雪纺 (xuěfǎng)

• Finnish: sifonki (fi)
• Hungarian: sifon (hu)
• Indonesian: sifon (id)
• Irish: sreabhann m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: シフォン (shifon), 絹モスリン (kinu mosurin)
• Malay: sifon
• Polish: szyfon (pl) m
• Portuguese: chiffon m
• Russian: шифо́н (ru) m (šifón)
• Spanish: gasa (es) f
• Swedish: chiffong

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French

Etymology

From chiffe +‎ -on.

Chiffe is from Middle French chiffe (“cloth, old rag”) from Old French chipe (“rag”), from Middle English chip, chippe (“chip, shard, fragment”) from Old English ċipp (“chip, splinter, shaving”), from Old English *ċippian (“to chip, shave, splinter”), from Proto-West Germanic *kipp-, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵey- (“to split; divide; germinate; sprout”). More at English chip.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃi.fɔ̃/

• audio:

  (file)

Noun

chiffon m (plural chiffons)

1. rag
2. scrap (of paper)

Derived terms

• chiffonner
• parler chiffons
• causer chiffons
• poupée de chiffon

Descendants

• → Catalan: xifó
• → English: chiffon
• → Spanish: chifón
• → Portuguese: chiffon

Further reading

• “chiffon”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French chiffon.

Noun

chiffon m (uncountable)

1. chiffon (sheer silk or rayon fabric)