Other forms: jerseys
A jersey is a shirt worn by a sports team, usually with a number and a name on the back. A football jersey, the yellow jersey, retire a jersey.
In British English it also means a knitted woollen pullover, which is what the word meant first — jersey, jumper, sweater and pullover are largely interchangeable in that sense, with regional preferences that nobody can quite explain. In cycling, the coloured jerseys of a stage race are prizes in themselves: the yellow jersey is the race leader, and that phrase is understood far beyond cycling. A Jersey is also a breed of dairy cow, from the same island.
1nounjerseyA shirt worn by a sports team.
“He kept the jersey from his first match.”
2nounjumperA knitted woollen pullover.
“Put a jersey on, it is cold out there.”
3nounsoftA soft knitted fabric.
“The dress is a heavy cotton jersey.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
jersey is a garment.
The word is a place name. Jersey, in the Channel Islands, had a knitting industry famous enough that its heavy woollen garments were simply called jerseys, in the same way that a cardigan and a balaclava are named after a person and a battle.
From a typical fisherman's sweater used on the island of Jersey.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA