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What’s the difference between a jumper, a pullover, and a sweater?
Different Meanings of ‘Jumper’ (Transatlantic embarassment)

While the connection between the words sweater and pullover and the clothes item they refer to is very clear, with the word jumper however, the relationship is rather vague: are people likely to jump when wearing jumpers?

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Sure. Never jumped while your arm is somewhere sticking in the sleeve in hope that this generates enough energy to push your arm through? ;) – Em1 Jan 2 at 11:10
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@coleopterist It is a similar question but that other question has not been answered particularly well. The concensus seems to be that they all mean the same thing but none actually give the definitions of the three words. Eg. a sweater was originally worn to soak up sweat in physical exercise hence the name. – spiceyokooko Jan 2 at 13:13
@spiceyokooko You're welcome to add an improved answer to that question. This one is a dupe. – coleopterist Jan 2 at 13:20
@coleopterist I disagree, the question you link to asks "What is the difference between the three", the question asks "What is the origin of jumper?" Clearly a very different question. – Matt Эллен Jan 2 at 14:00
@MattЭллен I appear to have pointed to the wrong question. I should have pointed here instead. My apologies for the confusion. – coleopterist Jan 2 at 14:16
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marked as duplicate by coleopterist, Jasper Loy, tchrist, Andrew Leach, Matt Эллен Jan 2 at 14:27

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1 Answer

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The Oxford English Dictionary suggests that jumper is a form of the obsolete jump, which described various kinds of garment. It in turn may be a corruption of French juppe, which gave us English jup, also obsolete, and which was ‘assimilated by popular etymology to jump.’

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