sansculotte

views updated May 23 2018

sansculotte in the French Revolution, a republican of the poorer classes in Paris. XVIII. — F., f. sans without + culotte knee-breeches; usu. taken to mean lit. ‘one who wears trousers (pantalon), not knee-breeches’.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology T. F. HOAD

sansculotte

views updated May 23 2018

sansculotte a lower-class Parisian republican in the French Revolution; the name, meaning literally ‘without knee-breeches’, is usually explained as someone wearing trousers as opposed to knee-breeches. The term is first recorded in English in the Annual Register for 1790.

The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ELIZABETH KNOWLES