Décolletage

By Deane Barker

Definition: a dress with a low neckline; the area of the body exposed by such a dress

There’s a good etymology here: it comes from the French word décollet, which literally means no (“de”) collar (“collet”) to represent “low neckline.”

In one type of usage, décolletage is also known, more simply, as cleavage.

Why I Looked It Up

From Vanderbilt:

[Mrs. Astor’s] ears sparkled with diamond drop earring, her chest glittered with a diamond bow and lovers’ knot brooches, and her décolletage was weighted down with heaps of diamond necklaces.

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