▪ I. bloomer1
(ˈbluːmə(r))
[f. bloom v.1 + -er1.]
1. a. A plant that blooms (in some way).
| 1730–6 Bailey Bloomers, blooming buds. 1882 Garden 7 Jan. 8/2 Those that have a tendency to be shy bloomers are placed in the lightest part of the house. 1885 Harper's Mag. Apr. 710/2 A New England white rose, a perennial bloomer. |
b. [Perh. a different word.] A large white crusty loaf resembling the Vienna roll, with a rounded diagonally slashed top, and baked on the oven bottom. Also attrib., as bloomer loaf.
| 1937 W. T. Banfield in Brit. Baker 12 Mar. 20/1 This bloomer loaf is also the easiest loaf to cut into slices... The loaf is glazed by setting the dough into a suitably humid oven... A genuine bloomer is enriched with milk, sugar, lard or butter. 1958 Times 21 Nov. 7/2 Rye loaves, wheatmeal loaves, baton-shaped loaves called ‘Bloomers’, Scottish baps, all had a place. 1969 M. Wiggin Cottage Idyll iv. 114, I bought my bread, saying clearly and distinctly, ‘Two small bloomer loaves, please.’ |
2. [for blooming letter: see blooming ppl. a. 6.] A floriated initial letter of the alphabet.
| 1899 Mackail W. Morris II. 256 The large floriated initials, or ‘bloomers’, in the slang of the press. 1901 Sunday Times 21 Apr., This book will be in the new type, with a fresh set of ‘bloomers’ specially designed for it. |
3. slang. [See quot. 1889.] A very great mistake: chiefly in phr. to make a bloomer.
| 1889 Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang, Bloomer (Australian), prison slang for a mistake. Abbreviated from the expression ‘a blooming error’. 1902 Westm. Gaz. 25 Nov. 8/1 The defendant replied, ‘You have made a bloomer, old chap; you never made a greater mistake in your life.’ 1928 Daily Express 19 Apr. 15 His mount, Clearmount, made a terrible bloomer at the last fence. 1959 Economist 6 June 920/1 ‘The Times’..has this week made a bloomer about a minister. |
4. Comb. bloomer-pit, a tan-pit or large vat in which hides are treated with a strong infusion of tanning liquor or ooze; a ‘layer.’
▸ fig. A person who is reaching maturity or in the process of realizing his or her potential; a person or thing as judged on rate of development or achievement (usually expressed by a preceding adjective). See also early bloomer n. (a) at early adj. and n. Additions, late bloomer n. (b) at late adj.1 and n.3 Additions.
| 1814 F. Burney Wanderer III. lviii. 392 The test of sense and temper in the waning beauty..in maturity, shocked and amazed to see herself supplanted by the rising bloomers. 1961 Science 10 Nov. 1493/2 The slow bloomers—words that achieved full status only after lingering in the Addenda from 1945 on. 1989 St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch (Nexis) 19 Apr. 1 d, The Pirates say Dunne, the belated bloomer, still hasn't come to full flower. |
▪ II. ˈbloomer2
[After Mrs. Bloomer, an American lady who introduced the costume; in earlier and historical uses often with capital initial.]
1. a. (More fully Bloomer costume, Bloomer dress): A style of female attire consisting of a short skirt and long loose trousers gathered closely round the ankles. So attrib. Bloomer principles, Bloomer movement.
| 1851 Boston Transcript 27 May 2/3 (Th.), The Bee says the daughter of Dr. Hanson, of this city, appeared in the Bloomer suit..last week. 1851 Ibid. 29 May 2/4 (Th.), The first ‘Bloomer’ made its appearance in our city yesterday. Ibid., Quite a large number of young ladies in that city have made arrangements to attend church tomorrow in the Bloomer costume. 1853 ‘Old Etonian’ Alphabet Annotated 61 Until they all the Bloomer dress assume. 1855 Kansas Tribune (Th.), Perhaps Lawrence [Kansas] is the only city in America where the majority of the ladies wear Bloomers. 1868 Reade True Love II. iv. 154 At sight of Miss Courtenay in a Bloomer he was ravished. 1875 I. L. Bird Sandw. Isl. (1880) 85 Deborah looked very piquante in a bloomer dress of dark blue. |
b. Regularly in pl. Loose trousers reaching to the knee or knickerbockers worn by women for bicycling, gymnasium practice, etc.; called also ‘rational dress’. Also, a woman's knee-length undergarment (the usual sense in later usage).
In quots. 1862, 1863, man's attire.
| 1862 Dickens Somebody's Luggage in All Year Round (Christmas) 9/1 A corporal of his country's army, in..the line of his waist, the broadest line of his Bloomer trousers, and their narrowest line at the calf of his leg. 1863 Miss Jemima's Swiss Jrnl. (1963) i. 7 Soldiers in many uniforms, some of them most laughable, their capacious bloomer costume reaching to the centre of the calf of the leg. 1895 Westm. Gaz. 25 July 8/1 Female teachers who have been riding bicycles in male attire, commonly called bloomers. 1906 Galsworthy Man of Property iii. i. 289 She could tell you..what they were doing in Paris about wearing bloomers. 1909 Daily Chron. 5 Aug. 7/3 [The hockey girl] in her short skirts, bloomers, flannel blouse, and cloth cap. 1967 Observer 30 Apr. 29/3 The tireless search for something else has paused for a moment to put matching bloomers or shorts under the skirt. |
2. A woman who wears bloomer costume.
| 1851 Punch 30 Aug. 103/2 If women assume the dress of men, let them undertake men's duties; hence, every Bloomer shall be liable to be drawn for the militia, without benefit of substitute. 1853 R. S. Surtees Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour xliii. 238 (heading) A Literary Bloomer. Ibid. 239 Lucy,—a young lady of a certain age—say liberal thirty—an ardent Bloomer. 1868 Reade True Love II. ii. 153 She then burst out crying, which was an unfair advantage the Bloomer took over poor Reginald. |
3. A kind of hat with a broad brim worn by ladies.
| 1883 Life Mrs. Prentiss vi. 177 A small shawl and my bloomer on. |
Hence ˈbloomered a., wearing bloomer costume; ˈbloomerism, the principles of Mrs. Bloomer as to female costume; ˈbloomerize v. trans., to dress in bloomers; also fig.
| 1851 (title) ‘Bloomerism’, or The New Female Costume of 1851. 1857 C. Reade Course True Love II. ii. 134 She was pretty far gone in bloomerism. 1882 Lady Harberton Dress Reform in Macm. Mag. XLV. 456 ‘Bloomerism’ still lurks in many a memory. 1885 Mrs. E. Lynn Linton Chr. Kirkland III. i. 18 Doubtful whether they were girls Bloomerized or boys in feminine tunics. 1895 Advance (Chicago) 6 June 1287 The ‘new woman’,..though not necessarily of the bloomered type, is marching..to victory in Wisconsin. 1897 Daily News 3 Feb. 6/4 The New Woman..has fairly bloomerised journalism in the United States. 1900 Daily News 4 Dec. 6/5 In these days of Lady Wranglers and bloomered ‘sportswomen’. 1907 Westm. Gaz. 2 Oct. 1/3 The outer lines were marked by companies of..bloomered Tirailleurs. 1960 Times 27 Sept. 13/6 A bloomered girl in the foreground. |