English

Jean Baptiste Vanmour, Portret van Sultan Ahmed III (Portrait of Sultan Ahmed III, 1703–1717), collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire is depicted wearing a dolman (sense 1).

An 1831 portrait by Georg Philipp Schmitt of Count György Károlyi de Nagykároly, a Hungarian politician, wearing a dolman (sense 2)

An illustration by Laure Noël from an 1871 edition of Harper's Bazaar showing the front and back of a cashmere dolman (sense 3)

Alternative forms

• dollman (obsolete)

Noun

dolman ‎(plural dolmans)

1. A long, loose garment with narrow sleeves and an opening in the front, generally worn by Turks.
   • 1903, Maurus Jókai; R[obert] Nisbet Bain, transl., “Three Men”, in The Slaves of the Padishah: (“The Turks in Hungary,” being the Sequel to “Midst the Wild Carpathians”): A Romance, 3rd edition, London: Jarrold & Sons, 10 & 11, Warwick Lane, E.C., OCLC 11540166, page 33:

     Feriz Beg, on discarding his dolman, rolled up the sleeves of his fine shirt of Turkish linen to his shoulders, and drew from its sheath his fine Damascus scimitar, which was scarce two inches broad, and so flexible that you could have bent it double in every direction like a watch-spring.

   • 1938, The Hungarian Quarterly, volume IV, Budapest; New York, N.Y.: Society of the Hungarian Quarterly, OCLC 906146013, page 292:

     [I]n the second half of the century the long Turkish dolman disappears completely and tight, knee-length dolmans and mentes become general.

   • 1980, Katalin Földi-Dózsa, “How the Hungarian National Costume Evolved”, in Polly Cone, editor, The Imperial Style: Fashions of the Hapsburg Era: Based on the Exhibition, Fashions of the Hapsburg Era, Austria-Hungary, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 1979—August 1980, New York, N.Y.: Metropolitan Museum of Art, ISBN 978-0-87099-232-2, page 80:

     The quintessentially Hungarian item of men's clothing was the dolman. This flowing garment, open in the front, replaced the waistcoat after the Renaissance. The dolman reflects the mixture of eastern and western styles that were both influencing Hungarian fashion in the seventeenth century. The garment had the small, round, stand-up collar of the German-style shirt, but was otherwise cut like a caftan, open in the front and sometimes worn with the lapels overlapping. The sleeve – which has lent its name to the modern dolman sleeve – was part of the main pattern piece, with the side seam continuing along under the arm. The sleeve was worn short enough to reveal the elaborate embroidery on the shirt sleeves underneath […]. Late in the seventeenth century the most popular style of dolman hung to mid-thigh and was worn mainly on holidays, at court, and during national festivals. The older ankle-length style was worn only on state visits to the Turkish sultan.

2. A short, close-fitting, heavily braided military jacket, usually worn under a pelisse, originally by hussars.
   • 1983, Roberta Gellis, Fortune's Bride, New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing, ISBN 978-0-440-12685-0:

     "Take off your helmet and sit down," Sabrina suggested. "Would you like something to drink?" / Robert nodded in reply to her question and not only took off his helmet but unhooked his pelisse, threw it on a chair, and unbuttoned the top of his dolman.

   • 1998, Gayle Greeno, Sunderlies Seeking (DAW Book Collectors; no. 1103), New York, N.Y.: DAW Books, ISBN 978-0-88677-805-7:

     All polished and sleek, boots glossy, every burnished detail about him annoyed her more than she'd have believed possible. Sitting on the chair's edge, he shrugged a shoulder until his dolman fell into place, then balanced his helmet on his knee like a pampered pet.

   • 2005, Wilbur [Addison] Smith, The Triumph of the Sun, London: Macmillan Publishers, ISBN 978-1-4050-0570-8:

     The captain's epaulettes on his shoulders and the frogging of his uniform jacket were bright new gold. His riding boots were polished to a glassy sheen, and the fine glove leather creased around his ankles like the bellows of an accordion. His cavalry sabre hung down along the scarlet side stripe of his riding breeches. He wore his dolman slung over one shoulder and clasped at his throat with a gold chain, and carried his Hussar's bearskin busby under his right arm.

   • 2015, “dolman”, in Annette Lynch and Mitchell D. Strauss, editors, Ethnic Dress in the United States: A Cultural Encyclopedia, Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 978-0-7591-2148-5, page 103:

     The uniform jacket with several rows of buttons and a horizontal braid across the front originally worn by the Hussars was also called a dolman.

3. A woman's garment with wide capelike sleeves.
   • 1942, Emily Carr, “A Little Town and a Little Girl: Characters”, in The Book of Small (Project Gutenberg Australia; eBook no. 0400201.txt), Toronto: Oxford University Press, published February 2004 (Project Gutenberg Australia version), OCLC 1317302, archived from the original on 31 March 2016:

     She, who never went out, found a bonnet that I had never seen before, put a dolman over her best silk dress, locked the guinea fowl safe in her kitchen and got into a hack with Henry, her smelling-bottle and her cap, in which was a new bunch of everlasting flowers.

   • 2011, Lisa Shroyer, “The Dolman Sweater”, in Knitting Plus: Mastering Fit + Plus-Size Style + 15 Projects, Loveland, Colo.: Interweave Press, ISBN 978-1-59668-237-5, page 141:

     In a dolman sweater, the sleeve is worked as a seamless extension of the body. […] Dolmans have a dramatic goddess aesthetic that is commonly used in commercial plus-size clothing. However, the more fitted dolmans or styles with cropped body lengths may not be as universally wearable—know what shapes look good on you before you begin knitting. […] In general, dolmans are recognizable for their winged kimono-like sleeves and T shape. But the one truism about dolmans is this—there is no standard!

   • 2015, “dolman”, in Annette Lynch and Mitchell D. Strauss, editors, Ethnic Dress in the United States: A Cultural Encyclopedia, Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 978-0-7591-2148-5, page 103:

     The dolman mantle, a popular women's fashion in Western Europe and the United States during the 1870s and 1880s, was characterized by loose sling-like sleeves cut with the body of the garment resembling a half jacket, half cape. The dolman or batwing sleeve is cut all in one with the bodice, giving a very deep armhole and narrowing at the wrist. The dolman sleeve style was worn in the early Middle Ages and has reappeared at intervals throughout history and remains a popular sleeve style today.

Usage notes

Not to be confused with dolmen.

References

• “dolman”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, ISBN 978-0-395-82517-4, archived from the original on 12 April 2001.

Homonyms

• dolmen

Anagrams

• almond
• old man

External links

• dolman on Wikipedia.Wikipedia