gingham
noun/ˈɡɪŋ.əm/
Etymology From Malay genggang (“ajar; apart”), or a corruption of French Guingamp, the name of a town in Brittany, France, where this cloth may have been made.
1
A cotton fabric made from dyed and white yarn woven in checks.
- And she found that she was not wearing a despised muslin frock! Her dress was gingham!—an adorable plaid with long sleeves, and a patch-pocket low down on the right side!1913, Eleanor Gates, The Poor Little Rich Girl:
- Aunt Elizabeth had produced a terrible gingham apron and an equally terrible gingham sunbonnet from somewhere in the New Moon garret, and made Emily put them on. The apron was a long sack-like garment, high in the neck, with sleeves.1923, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “Chapter 8”, in Emily of New Moon, Toronto, Ont.: McClelland and Stewart, →OCLC:
2 more examples
- Always, the relentless bass of hip-hop blasting in rooms of nautical-themed furnishings, faded driftwood, gingham upholstery, linen and chambray.2022, Ling Ma, “G”, in Bliss Montage, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN:
- Tradwifedom, the meekly old-fashioned vision of domesticity served up on Instagram by a bunch of submissive influencers in aprons, is a gingham-lined trap visible from space […].2025 August 28, Gaby Hinsliff, “Taylor Swift: engaged, mummy-tracked and doomed to tradwifedom? You really haven’t been listening”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
2
A dress made from that material.
- "We have put on the pale blue silks that we wore at Isabella's wedding; that, however, was Georgiana's thought," continued Helen; "she said it would be impossible to go to church in our pink ginghams."1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 187:
- […] their ginghams stuck under their arms at right angles to their back-bones […]1878, Gilbert Abbott À Beckett, George Cruikshank's Table-book, page 268:
- Derived terms
- ginghamed
- Related terms
- seersucker