A.Word.A.Day --dishabille

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dishabille or deshabille

PRONUNCIATION:

(dis-uh-BEEL, -BEE)

MEANING:

noun:
1. The state of being partly dressed.
2. A deliberately careless or casual manner.

ETYMOLOGY:

From French déshabillé, past participle of déshabiller (to undress), from des- (apart) + habiller (to clothe). Earliest documented use: 1703.

USAGE:

"Seconds after 7 am on Monday, trousers were dropping and skirts were lifting all along Wall Street. The mass dishabille was part of a site-specific work of performance art."
Melena Ryzik; A Bare Market Lasts One Morning; The New York Times; Aug 1, 2011.

See more usage examples of dishabille in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

I begin to see what marriage is for. It's to keep people away from each other. Sometimes I think that two people who love each other can be saved from madness only by the things that come between them: children, duties, visits, bores, relations, the things that protect married people from each other. -Edith Wharton, novelist (1862-1937)

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