polka jacket

English

Noun

polka jacket (plural polka jackets)

1. A tight-fitting knitted jacket worn by women. It was fashionable in the 19th century.

   Synonym: polka

   • 1862, Margaret Domville, “A visit to the hareem of Saïd Pacha”, in Once a Week:

     All the dresses were en suite, and consisted of a pair of very full trousers, joined together half way up the leg, a robe called a yebek, with tight sleeves, and either opening half-way down the chest and then buttoning to the waist, or closed from the throat; the skirt is divided into three parts, the back hanging down so as to form a long train, the two front ones coming off into points which, as they showed me, they tuck into the scarf: this is twisted as a belt round the waist when they sit down, and held between their ankles when they walk; and as they shuffle along, never raising their feet from the ground, the ends do not drop down, as they would infallibly do with us. A polka jacket completes the costume. The embroidery on the dresses was literally sumptuous; what I most admired was a dove-coloured watered silk with a deep embroidery of wheat-ears in pure gold, the finest jeweller’s gold laid on in solid pieces for the leaves and ears, the stalks in gold thread.

   • 1870, James Bonwick, The Last of the Tasmanians, Chapter 9:

     When expecting company, they were decked out suitably. Calico for chemises was once issued, and, doubtless, made up by some of them in olden days. The polka jacket was gaily got up, though only worn on festive occasions. When I made a remark as to the paucity of clothes, and their miserable appearance in such weather, there was the repetition of the complaint of their selling for drink the dresses, even though all had been stamped with the Government mark.

   • 1911, “India”, in Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition, New York, N.Y.: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.:

     In towns the sari is not passed between the legs, but hangs in loose folds so as to hide the trousers. The upper classes wear a sleeved polka jacket instead of the bodice.

   • 1917, Henry Handel Richardson, Australia Felix, Part I/Chapter I:

     the digger, whose very pores oozed gold, planked down handfuls of dust and nuggets, and brushed aside a neat Paisley shawl for one of yellow satin, the fellow to which he swore to having seen on the back of the Governor's lady herself. He showered brandy-snaps on the children, and bought a polka-jacket for a shabby old woman.

References

• “polka”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.