farthingale

Alternative forms

• vardingale
• verdugal

Etymology

From Middle French verdugale, from Spanish verdugado, from verdugo (“rod”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɑːðɪŋɡeɪl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfɑɹðɪŋɡeɪl/
• Hyphenation: far‧thin‧gale

Noun

farthingale (plural farthingales)

1. (now historical) A hooped structure in cloth worn to extend the skirt of women's dresses; a hooped petticoat.
   • 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes, […], printed at London: […] Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:
     , II.12:

     women […] make trunk-sleeves of wyre and whale-bone bodies, backes of lathes, and stiffe bumbasted verdugals, and to the open-view of all men paint and embellish themselves with counterfeit and borrowed beauties […].

   • 2003, Alexander Chancellor, The Guardian, 3 May 2003:

     In Henry VIII's Great Hall, there were men in doublets and codpieces prancing up and down with women in farthingales.