bloomer

n.

1. 1. A plant that blooms.
   2. A person who attains full maturity and competence: a late bloomer.
2. Slang. A blunder.

bloom·er² (blū'mər)
n.

1. A costume formerly worn by women and girls that was composed of loose trousers gathered about the ankles and worn under a short skirt.
2. bloomers
   1. Wide, loose trousers gathered at the knee and formerly worn by women and girls as an athletic costume.
   2. Girls' underpants of similar design.

[After Amelia Jenks BLOOMER.]

noun

A stupid, clumsy mistake: blunder, bull, bungle, foozle, fumble, muff, stumble. Informal blooper, boner. Slang goof. See correct/incorrect.

Bloomers was the term given to a woman's garment credited to Elizabeth Smith Miller that involved baggy, pantaloon-style pants cinched at the ankle and a matching overblouse that came down to the knees. Miller had purchased the garment in Switzerland, where it was made for women to wear while hiking at health resorts. In 1851 she brought it with her on a visit to her cousin Elizabeth Cady Stanton in Seneca Falls, New York. Stanton made others like it, which she wore around town to the embarrassment of her father, Judge Cady, and her son. Stanton showed it to Amelia Bloomer, who was then editor of The Lily, a woman's journal. Like Stanton, Bloomer embraced the idea that it freed women to wear looser clothing than the corsets, petticoats, and long dresses they were enduring at the time. She featured a picture of it in The Lily, and hundreds of women wrote in asking for patterns on how to make it. Newspaper reporters gave the term "bloomers" to the garment after Amelia Bloomer who had popularized it.

Bloomers not only brought new physical freedom and comfort in daily life for women in the mid-nineteenth century, but they also served as a vehicle for opening discussion of other women's issues such as suffrage and property rights. Subscriptions to The Lily increased, and activists such as Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B. Anthony wore the new garment on their lecture tours. Despite their popularity, bloomers outraged many men and women at the time, who thought them vulgar and unladylike.

Bibliography

Bloomer, Amelia Jenks. Hear Me Patiently: The Reform Speeches of Amelia Jenks Bloomer. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994.

—Connie Ann Kirk

Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has 2 meanings:

Meaning #1: a flower that blooms in a particular way

Meaning #2: an embarrassing mistake
  Synonyms: blunder, blooper, bungle, foul-up, fuckup, flub, botch, boner, boo-boo

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Dansk (Danish)
1.
n. - bommert, fadæse, brøler, tanketorsk

idioms:

• make a bloomer    begå en bommert, begå en brøler, begå en fadæse

2.
n. - blomstring

3.
n. - initial med blomsterornament

Nederlands (Dutch)
blunder, bloeiende plant, volwassen wordend iemand, knipbrood, (mv) (lange) damesonderbroek, (mv) wijdzittende broek voor vrouwen

Français (French)
1.
n. - gaffe, bévue

idioms:

• make a bloomer    faire une bévue

2.
n. - plante en floraison, personne dans le plein épanouissement de ses capacités

3.
n. - culotte bouffante (npl), (GB) gros pain

Deutsch (German)
1.
n. - Schnitzer

idioms:

• make a bloomer    einen Bock schießen

2.
n. - Langbrot

3.
n. - blühende Pflanze, Arbeiter, der die Blüte entfernt

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - χονδροειδής γκάφα, ανθοφόρο φυτό, (πληθ.) μακριά, φαρδιά κιλότα

idioms:

• make a bloomer    κάνω χοντρή γκάφα

Italiano (Italian)
granchio, cantonata

idioms:

• make a bloomer    prendere un granchio, fare una gaffe

Português (Portuguese)
n. - planta (f) em flor, erro (m) (gír.), costume (m) de calça comprida e saia curta usado pelas mulheres antigamente

idioms:

• make a bloomer    cometer um grande erro (gír.)

Русский (Russian)
промах, оговорка

idioms:

• make a bloomer    оговориться, сделать промах

Español (Spanish)
1.
n. - metida de pata

idioms:

• make a bloomer    meter la pata, quedar en evidencia

2.
n. - pantalones cortos y holgados ajustados en la rodilla

3.
n. - planta que florece

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - blunder, misstag

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
1. 从前女用灯笼裤

idioms:

• make a bloomer    大失败, 错误

2. 开花植物, 纰漏

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
1.
n. - 開花植物, 紕漏

2.
n. - 從前女用燈籠褲

idioms:

• make a bloomer    大失敗, 錯誤

한국어 (Korean)
1.
n. - 큰 실수

idioms:

• make a bloomer    실수를 하다

2.
n. - 블루머(예전에 운동복으로 입었던 여성용 바지), 골프바지

3.
n. - 대실패

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 花を咲かせる植物, 大失策, ブルーマ, ゴルフズボン

idioms:

• make a bloomer    大失敗をする

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) غلطه, زله, زهرة‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮טעות גסה‬
n. - ‮כיכר לחם מוארכת‬
n. - ‮צמח הפורח בצורה מיוחדת, אדם המתבגר או מתפתח בצורה מיוחדת‬

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