Etymology

straitjacket

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Today it means: A jacketlike garment with very long sleeves which can be secured in place, thus preventing the wearer from moving their arms; formerly often used in psychiatric hospitals to prevent patients from injuring themselves or others. Full definition →

English jacket ← Middle French jacquet
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The story

  1. Englishstrait
  2. Middle Frenchjacquet
  3. Englishjacket
  4. English todaystraitjacket

From strait (“restrictive”) + jacket.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.