mitten
/ˈmɪt(ə)n
/noun (usually mittens)
1A glove with two sections, one for the thumb and the other for all four fingers.An ordinary glove or mitten may be worn on the bow hand....
- Then, over each rubber glove, she pulls an old athletic sock, mitten or cotton glove.
- Some variation for the mittens would be to add a cuff of ribbing or fringe to the outside of the mitten.
1.1 (mittens) informal Boxing gloves.
Derivatives
mittened
- ‘Testing… ‘The reporter spoke into a microphone she grasped in one mittened hand, the other pressing against an earmuff, which covered a headset.’
- As she approaches her pentagonal shack she fumbles around in her bag with mittened fingers in search of the key, playing the daily game of challenging her impaired dexterity to its limits.
- ‘Say goodbye’ I say as I squeeze their mittened hands as a way of prompting.
Origin
Middle English: from Old French mitaine, perhaps from mite, a pet name for a cat (because mittens were often made of fur).
Mittens often used to be made of fur, and the name may derive from French mite, a pet name for a cat which probably imitated its mewing. This implies that the fur in question was cat's fur—the medieval world could not afford to be sentimental about its animals. The word mitten was shortened to mitt in the mid 18th century, in the sense ‘fingerless glove’. From the late 19th century mitt was also used for ‘a person's hand’, as in to get your mitts up. See also gauntlet, glove