Other forms: jumpers
A jumper is a knitted top pulled on over the head. A woolly jumper, a Christmas jumper, put a jumper on.
This is the British word; American English says sweater, and in America a jumper is a sleeveless dress worn over a blouse, which is a real source of confusion. Pullover is the other British term. Note jumper cables, which is American for jump leads; and that jumper as a garment has nothing to do with jumping — it comes from an old word for a loose jacket.
1nounjumperA knitted top pulled on over the head.
“The jumper has been shrinking by about an inch a wash.”
synonyms: pullover, sweater
jumper is a garment.
Also accepted in games: pullover
Old French jupe meant a loose jacket, from Arabic jubba, a long garment. The word reached English through French and was reshaped by association with jump, which had nothing to do with it.
Proto-Germanic
*gumbōną — to hop, skip, bounce
Middle English
jumpen — to walk quickly, run, jump
English
jump
English, today
jumper
From jump + -er. jump comes from Middle English jumpen (“to walk quickly, run, jump”), probably of Middle Low German - or gmq - origin, ultimately from Proto-Germanic gumbōną (“to hop, skip, bounce”), an iterative verb. The OED suggests an imitative of the sound origin. Related to jumble. In the sense “to propel oneself” it displaced leap partially and spring largely. 2 Cognate with German Low German jumpen (“to jump”), archaic German gumpen (“to jump, hop, bounce”), dialectal German gampen (“to hop”), gsw gumpe (“to leap, jump”), Walser dialect kumpu, Old Norse gopta (“to jump; make jump”) Danish gumpe (“to jolt”), Swedish gumpa (“to jump”), Danish gimpe (“to move up and down”), Middle English jumpren, jumbren (“to mix, jumble”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA