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trunk hose

pl.n.

Short ballooning breeches, extending from the waist to mid-thigh, worn by men in Europe in the 1500s and 1600s.

[Perhaps from obsolete trunk, to cut off, from Latin truncāre; see TRUNCATE.]

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trunk hose

detail of the 1574 painting Portrait of a Man in White

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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