sostén

Asturian

Noun

sostén m (plural sostenes)

1. bra (brassiere)

Synonyms

• apertador

Catalan

Verb

sostén

1. second-person singular imperative of sostenir

Galician

Verb

sostén

1. inflection of soster:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sosˈten/ [sosˈt̪ẽn]
• Rhymes: -en
• Syllabification: sos‧tén

Etymology 1

Deverbal from sostener, or possibly borrowed from Old Occitan sostenh; compare French soutien, soutien-gorge.

Noun

sostén m (plural sostenes)

1. support, prop
2. (now especially Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Spain, Venezuela) bra, brassière

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:sostén

   • 1992, Javier Marías, chapter 1, in Corazón tan blanco [A Heart So White]:

     No he querido saber, pero he sabido que una de las niñas […] entró en cuarto de baño, se puso frente al espejo, se abrió la blusa, se quitó el sostén y se buscó el corazón con la punta de la pistola de su propio padre, que estaba en el comedor con parte de la familia y tres invitados.

     I didn't want to know, but I found out that one of the girls...went into the bathroom, stood in front of the mirror, opened her blouse, took off her bra and searched for her heart with the tip of the pistol which belonged to her father, who was in the dining room with part of the family and three guests.

3. sustenance, nourishment

Related terms

• sostener

 

Etymology 2

Verb

sostén

1. second-person singular imperative of sostener

Further reading

• “sostén”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28