Friday, August 16, 2013

cummerbund

cummerbund \KUHM-er-buhnd\, noun:

a wide sash worn at the waist, especially a horizontally pleated one worn with a tuxedo.

Wilson stood gloomily by his bed in the Bedford Hotel and contemplated his cummerbund, which lay ruffled like an angry snake…
-- Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter, 1948
He was now dressed for the evening, in a white tuxedo shirt, black cummerbund, and bowtie.
-- Tom Clancy, Rainbow Six, 1998

Cummerbund came to English in the 17th century from the Urdu and Persian kamarband, meaning "waistband."

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