Shawl vs Fichu - What's the difference?

As nouns the difference between shawl and fichu

is that shawl is a square or rectangular piece of cloth worn as a covering for the head, neck, and shoulders while fichu is a woman's lightweight triangular scarf worn over the shoulders and tied in front.

As a verb shawl

is to wrap in a shawl.

shawl

English

Noun

(wikipedia shawl) (en noun)

A square or rectangular piece of cloth worn as a covering for the head, neck, and shoulders.

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls , and after her a tall young lady. She stood for a moment holding her skirt above the grimy steps,

Derived terms

* beshawled

Verb

(en verb)

To wrap in a shawl.

(Thackeray)

Anagrams

* English terms derived from Persian

fichu

English

(wikipedia fichu)

Noun

(en noun)

A woman's lightweight triangular scarf worn over the shoulders and tied in front

* 1789, The Ladies Magazine , January 1789, "Fashionable Dresses: The First Lady's Dress", page 55

On the neck—an ample Fichu , very prominent, the point of which behind goes under the jacket and the ends before go under the stomacher

* 1868 London Society , vol. XIII, "Fashion at Longchamps", page 407

The fichu proper, introduced by Marie Antoinette, not before the décolletée style of toilette made it positively necessary, was nothing more than a lace kerchief worn crossed over the shoulders.

* 1919, , Duckworth, hardback edition, page 93

She wore a dress of filmy white stuff, embroidered with bunches of pale mauve thistles, a full fichu', and a large mauve hat with wide mauve ribbons, tied in front in a large knot where the ' fichu was crossed on her bosom.

* 1969 , Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor , Penguin 2011, p. 285:

Assistant Van admired her elegant slenderness, the gray tailor-made suit, the smoky fichu and as it wafted away, her long white neck.

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