chemisen.

Etymology: Partly (in α. forms) < post-classical Latin camisia (see below), and partly (chiefly in β. forms) < Anglo-Norman chemés, kemese, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French, French chemise linen undergarment (c1000 as chamisae ), book cover (1351), wall lining an earthen rampart (1676), lining of a furnace (1799 in the passage translated in quot. 1800 at sense 4) < post-classical Latin camisia, camisa linen undergarment (c400), priestly garment (6th cent.), book cover (10th cent.), of uncertain origin (see below). Compare Old Occitan camisa (first half of the 12th cent.), Catalan camisa (1204), Spanish camisa (early 13th cent.), Portuguese camisa (1057), Italian camicia (end of the 13th cent. as camiscia).Post-classical Latin camisia appears first in Jerome c400 ( Epistulae 64. 11 ‘volo pro legentis facilitate abuti sermone vulgato; solent militantes habere lineas, quas camisias vocant’, ‘I wish to use colloquial language for the convenience of the reader; soldiers usually have linen garments which they call chemises’). It is also in Salic law (58. 4) and in Isidore (19. 21. 1, 22. 29 ‘Camisias vocari, quod in his dormimus in camis, id est stratis nostris’, ‘chemises are so called, because we sleep in them in our beds’). Compare also the derivative post-classical Latin camisile , campsile fine linen, alb, etc. (see chaisel n.). The further etymology of Latin camisia is uncertain. It appears to be a borrowing from another Indo-European language and ultimately related to the Germanic group comprising Old English hemeðe , Old Frisian hamethe , hemethe , Middle Dutch hemde (Dutch hemd ), Old Saxon hemiði (Middle Low German hēmede , hemmede ), Old High German hemidi (Middle High German hemede , German Hemd ), ultimately < Indo-European base of hame n.¹ It is possible that the Latin word was borrowed < Germanic, although this poses phonological problems. Alternative suggestions include mediation via a Celtic language (although this would need to be distinct from the attested Celtic words cited below), or perhaps a borrowing from a cognate in a related language of the Balkans. Early Irish caimmse shirt, chemise (Irish caimse , now literary), Welsh †camse robe, gown (14th cent.), and Old Cornish camse article of female clothing, are all ultimately < Latin. Welsh hefis , hefys (14th–15th cent.) and Old Cornish heuis (Middle Cornish hevys ) apparently reflect early borrowings into British < Germanic. The word apparently became obsolete in the 16th cent. and was reborrowed < French in the late 17th cent. in sense 2 and slightly later in sense 1. With sense 3 compare French chemise à feu (1676).