"Sport Coat" or "Blazer"?

[Jan Libourel]

In the book Menswear Dog about which I just started a thread, the authors use the term "blazer" as a synonym for "sport coat" or "odd jacket." Well, the term "tweed blazer" sets my teeth on edge, but are there in fact any precise criteria for differentiating a sport coat and a blazer? Metal buttons? No few men like mother-of-pearl buttons and perhaps other buttons like very light-colored horn for their blazers. Solid color? I have a black watch tartan jacket with metal buttons that is very evidently a blazer. I am inclined to think that a blazer (as opposed to a generic sport coat) is sort of like the old definition of pornography--hard to define, but you know it when you see it.

Any thoughts on this matter?

 

[Russell Street]

I want to say that it should look right aboard some sporting watercraft.
Ideally, a color of some sportiness, with the typical navy being perhaps the least sporty. Scarlet, emerald - that's a blazer! Those regatta stripes, as much as some hate them, totally qualify.
Buttons really should be shiny, but a decent contrast is a bare minimum.
The sportiness necessitates that the thing have a somewhat relaxed fit and construction. They are a bit loose and have swelled edges. These nuts that have them skin-tight and with pick stitching or other flourishes are doing it wrong.

 

[fxh]

The term usually used here in Oz is sportscoat. Odd jacket is a recent term used by those on Internet forums. Seems to be a USA imported term.

Blazers here are pretty clearly blazers. Sports club blazers - in non business colours or some have rarely, bright stripes. Say for a rowing club. Probably more commonly used here to describe a "real" blazer as many schools both private and public have worn blazers. And many still do.

 

[prince nez]

Odd jacket is a term used by odd people but I wonder why it's "sportscoat" in Aus, versus the American "sport coat"? Very unlike Australians to add extra letters and make longer words - simple folk.

 

[fxh]

To me its simple - sport coat doesn't scan. Sportscoat does.
Americans "write" people.
wtf? We "write to" people.

 

[prince nez]

In that case it should be shortened to "scoat"... like how Australia becomes "Straya".

 

[fxh]

Truth is most idiots these days want to know why you are wearing a "suit"

 

[Jan Libourel]

I thought "odd jacket" was more of an Anglicism than an Americanism. This leads me to the question, can a man wear an odd jacket to a meeting of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows? I once addressed a meeting of Odd Fellows on the topic of gun control. Some of the Odd Fellows suggested I might like to join their Order. Many who know me consider me to be a pretty odd fellow anyway, so it might have been a good fit.

As a matter of historical interest the Odd Fellows are the oldest of all the fraternal organizations, antedating the Freemasons by a few decades. [Or so I had heard it claimed, looking into the matter, I find this is questionable. Many of these fraternal organizations like to claim a probably specious high antiquity for their groups.]

 

[Allen Smithee]

Today, a blazer must be blue.