peplos

American  

[pep-luhs] / ˈpɛp ləs /

Or peplus

noun

plural

peploses

1. a loose-fitting outer garment worn, draped in folds, by women in ancient Greece.

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peplos British  

/ ˈpɛpləs /

noun

1. Also called: peplum.  (in ancient Greece) the top part of a woman's attire, caught at the shoulders and hanging in folds to the waist

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Other Word Forms

• peplosed adjective

Etymology

Origin of peplos

First recorded in 1770–80, peplos is from the Greek word péplos (masculine)

Example Sentences

The artistic director at Christian Dior, Maria Grazia Chiuri, opened her couture show with a simple white dress resembling the peplos of classical Greece: a rectangle of cloth draped to make a flowing column.

From The New Yorker • Jul. 11, 2019

This year, Chiuri printed the peplos with the title of a crucial work of social criticism—Bernard Rudofsky’s “Are Clothes Modern?”—in a typeface inspired by the cloth cover of its first edition, from 1947.

From The New Yorker • Jul. 11, 2019

The peplos of Minerva was bordered with fighting gods and giants, and the Empress Theodora’s dress in the Ravenna mosaic repeats exactly the same motive.

From Needlework As Art by Alford, Marianne Margaret Compton Cust, Viscountess

Penelope wove the deeds of Ulysses on her loom, and it is suggested by Aristarchus that her peplos served as an historical document for Homer’s “Iliad.”

From Needlework As Art by Alford, Marianne Margaret Compton Cust, Viscountess

The peplos tissue of gold was not for her.

From Historia Amoris: A History of Love, Ancient and Modern by Saltus, Edgar