noun
- a close-fitting jacket or short coat, usually sleeveless, as one of leather worn in the 16th and 17th centuries.
noun
- a sleeveless and collarless short jacket worn by men or women
- a man’s sleeveless and collarless fitted jacket, often made of leather, worn in the 16th and 17th centuries
1510s, of uncertain origin, perhaps related to Dutch jurk “a frock,” but this is a modern word, itself of unknown origin, and the initial consonant presents difficulties (Dutch -j- typically becomes English -y-).