[fahr-th
ing-geyl] 
| a hoop skirt or framework for expanding a woman's skirt, worn in the 16th and 17th centuries. |
| far·thin·gale (fär'thĭn-gāl', -thĭng-) n. A support, such as a hoop, worn beneath a skirt to extend it horizontally from the waist, used by European women in the 16th and 17th centuries. [Alteration of obsolete verdynggale, from Old French verdugale, from Old Spanish verdugado, from verdugo, stick, shoot of a tree, from verde, green, from Latin viridis, from virēre, to be green.] |
farthingale
underskirt expanded by a series of circular hoops that increase in diameter from the waist down to the hem and are sewn into the underskirt to make it rigid. The fashion spread from Spain to the rest of Europe from 1545 onward. The frame could be made of whalebone, wood, or wire. The shape was first domed, coned, or bell-like; later it became more like a tub or drum. The fashion persisted in most European courts until 1620, with variations such as the French farthingale-which descended from a round padded bolster-and the Italian, or wheel, farthingale-which tilted upward at the back.
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