Mitaine / fingerless glove

[RuK]

Is there a better word in English for 'mitaines' than 'fingerless gloves'? I'm having a blank.

[french4beth]

"Fingerless glove" is fine - can't come up with anything else...

[Keigan]

"Mittens" exists in English.

[RuK]

Mittens in English are moufles. Thanks, though. I'll go with fingerless gloves - how explicit and inelegant!

[Keigan]

C'est la même chose...cherchez "moufles", "mittens" ou "mitaines" dans Google Images, vous verrez

http://mciu.org/~sgeweb/images/mittens.gif

***Ahhh The French use "mitaines" strictly for fingerless gloves I suppose...

We don't

[french4beth]

It really depends on exactly what type of 'mitaines' you're talking about - fingerless gloves are much different than mittens...

[RuK]

The reference to 'mitaines' in the text is clearly fingerless gloves, and in the world of clothes I believe that's what mitaines always means. Moufles is the word for the one-thumb, conglomerated fingers thing that children wear because it's so hard to jam gloves onto their little fingers.

Sad that English doesn't have a proper term for fingerless gloves.

[petereid]

I've heard "Fagin's gloves" after Fagin in Dickens's Oliver Twist.
But not in common usage..."Who's Fagin?" the kids will say.

[Keigan]

Ruk... In Canada, we mostly use mitaines instead of moufles.

[RuK]

People do it here, too, but I have the impression that professionals maintain the mitaine/moufle distinction.

[Keigan]

If you want my opinion, I think moufles is slowly getting surpassed by mitaines... I see moufles used for oven gloves and stuff like that, though.

[Gil]

mitaine [mitDn] n. f.
• 1180; de l'a. fr. mite, même sens, p.-ê. de mite « chat » 1¨ Vx ou région. (Canada) Moufle.
2¨ Mod. Gant qui laisse à nu les deux dernières phalanges des doigts. Porter des mitaines.

Source: Le Petit Robert

[Cath.S.]

Originally Posted by RuK

People do it here, too, but I have the impression that professionals maintain the mitaine/moufle distinction.

I'm not a professional but I certainly do, so do all the people around me.

Ruk, the reason mittens keep all the fingers together in one single pouch is because they are made out of really thick material, which would prove too clumsy to use with classical gloves. And, yes, they are easy to put on and to take off, even for adults.

[Kelly B]

They've become very popular among knitters lately, and are often referred to as wrist-warmers or mitts, as well as fingerless gloves.