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The sleeveless garment called surcote or jupe in Anglo-Norman French seems to have been developed around 1175 as a means of keeping the mail armour of a knight cool under a hot sun. The idea was copied from Turkish, Arabic and Egyptian garments with the same purpose - one of many influences resulting directly from the crusades.

At first these surcotes were quite plain, either white or dyed a single overall colour. Only much later did they start to bear the coat of arms of the knight.

The term jupe (sometimes jupon or jupam) comes directly from the Arabic word jubbah, a long outer garment worn by wealthy Moslems. The term surcote is simply formed of Anglo-Norman French sur (over, on top of, above) and cote (a tunic or outer garment).

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14y ago

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