culotte : Idioms & Phrases

Sans`-cu`lotte" noun

Etymology

F., without breeches.

Definitions

1. A fellow without breeches; a ragged fellow; -- a name of reproach given in the first French revolution to the extreme republican party, who rejected breeches as an emblem peculiar to the upper classes or aristocracy, and adopted pantaloons.
2. Hence, an extreme or radical republican; a violent revolutionist; a Jacobin.

Webster 1913