It's fitting—you should pardon the pun—that an item of clothing worn around the world should have woven itself so thoroughly into the fabric of our lexicon. (来源：英语杂志 http://www.EnglishCN.com)

Like English itself, blue jeans claims a varied ancestry. Back in the 19th century American West, it didn't take long for Bavarian immigrant Levi Strauss to replace the original canvas of the sturdy workpants he manufactured for American gold miners with sturdy dungaree material. The label dungaree has its origin in the Hindi dungri and first appeared in English in the late 1600s.

Within decades, dungaree had been followed into English by denim, a material named for its place of manufacture, Nimes, France. The durable twilled fabric with a smooth clear face and a pronounced diagonal rib on its front and back was originally known as "serge of Nimes," or "serge de Nimes."

We fade back even further in time for the story of jeans. Jean is short for jean fustian, a fustian manufactured in Genoa, Italy. Genoa developed into jean but where does fustian come from? From across the Mediterranean, originally. The first fustian, nowadays created with a linen warp and cotton weft, is believed to date back to the third century Al-Fustat, now a part of Cairo.