farthingale
far·thin·gale/ˈfɑɹðɪŋɡeɪl/noun
farthingale is a noun meaning “A hooped structure in cloth worn to extend the skirt of women's dresses; a hooped petticoat” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-A-R-T-H-I-N-G-A-L-E and has 3 syllables (far·thin·gale), and it appears about once in every 32 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of farthingale is farthingales.
What does farthingale mean?
noun
- 1
A hooped structure in cloth worn to extend the skirt of women's dresses; a hooped petticoat.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce farthingale?
- UK /ˈfɑːðɪŋɡeɪl/
- US /ˈfɑɹðɪŋɡeɪl/
Farthingale has 3 syllables, split far·thin·gale in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of farthingale
- farthingales plural
- fardingale
- vardingale
- verdingall
- verdugal
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is farthingale?
Farthingale appears about once in every 32 million words in written English, the 173,967th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Farthingale in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense hooped structure:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | crinoline |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does farthingale come from?
Hobson-Jobson of earlier forms vardingale, etc., borrowed from Middle French verdugale, from Spanish verdugado, from verdugo (“rod”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).