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muumuu (MOO-moo) - n., a long loose-fitting dress made of lightweight fabric printed with bright, stylized Hawaiian themes.
Thanks, WikiMedia!
Introduced by Christian missionaries in several Polynesian cultures in the early 1800s, intended as an undergarment to a fuller dress that covered up more of those "half-naked savages," but in Hawaii it evolved into a dress on its own that's better suited to the climate. (The fuller dress, now sometimes called a Mother Hubbard dress, is a holokū in Hawaiian.) The Hawaiian name, muʻumuʻu, pronounced with four syllables, means cut-off/shortened, because it lacks the yoke and long sleeves of the holokū.
---L.
Thanks, WikiMedia!
Introduced by Christian missionaries in several Polynesian cultures in the early 1800s, intended as an undergarment to a fuller dress that covered up more of those "half-naked savages," but in Hawaii it evolved into a dress on its own that's better suited to the climate. (The fuller dress, now sometimes called a Mother Hubbard dress, is a holokū in Hawaiian.) The Hawaiian name, muʻumuʻu, pronounced with four syllables, means cut-off/shortened, because it lacks the yoke and long sleeves of the holokū.
---L.
