caleçon

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian calzone, with an excrescent schwa^[1] (cf. the form calçon, attested in the sixteenth century).^[2] Doublet of chausson, an inherited form.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kal.sɔ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

caleçon m (plural caleçons)

1. boxer shorts, boxer briefs
   • 1903, Jules Garçon, editor, Encyclopédie Universelle Des Industries Tinctoriales, page 199:

     Ce qui me le fit mettre dans les poches de mon caleçon de bain...

     Which made me put it in the pockets of my swimming trunks...

   • 1965, François Mauriac, Nouveaux Mémoires, Flammarion, page 905:

     Un caleçon minuscule.

     A tiny pair of boxers.

Usage notes

• Caleçons sold in Quebec tend to be more conservatively cut than their equivalent in France or Haiti.

Derived terms

• caleçon de bain

Descendants

• → Greek: καλσόν (kalsón)
• → Esperanto: kalsono
• Louisiana Creole: caneçon
• → Swedish: kalsonger
• → Japanese: カルソン

References

• Müller, Daniela. 2011. Developments of the lateral in Occitan dialects and their Romance and cross-linguistic context. Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Toulouse.

1. Müller 2011: 46
2. • “caleçon”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.