brassiere

the english word 'brassiere' is a direct borrowing from early 20th century french, where 'brassière' originally meant a child's undershirt or a supporter for the arm. this french term derived from the old french 'braciere', meaning 'arm guard' or 'sleeve', which itself came from 'bras', meaning 'arm'. the semantic shift from a garment for the arm to one for the breasts is attributed to the item's supportive function. the word entered english as a euphemism and later became the standard, though it is now often shortened to 'bra'.

this word is a loanword from french where it functions as a simplex unit in english. its spelling and form are not productively segmented into smaller, meaningful english morphemes.