It occurs to me there is a problem with scope as well: ‘big’ may modify ‘girl’ or ‘girl’s blouse’ (the truth-conditions will then diverge significantly). Also, ‘girl’s blouse’ is ambiguous between a blouse owned by a girl (but not necessarily designed to be worn by one) and a blouse owned by anyone (or no one) but designed to be worn by a girl.

I was going to say I’d never heard that term in 20 years in England, but does it mean a wimp? I think you can say it without “big”, if so, and that may be more common.

I’ve always thought of this as an Australianism. I think it’s a purely euphonic adaption of the older and more obvious “Big Girl”. There was a TV series with two women comedians called Big Girls Blouse and the song “Big Girls Don’t Cry” used to be played at sporting events when a member of the visiting team questioned a referee’s ruling [I think this was eventually suppressed as being too inflammatory].

I’ve never heard this in 20 years in America. That leaves…Australia!

In my usage (northern England, which is apparently the point of origin, it’s equally stressed (as are many northernisms) and elided to something like ‘big curl’s ploughs’, the long dipthong giving the impression of a slightly weaker stress on the ‘blouse’ bit, though it’s not really the case. OED has its earliest citation with Nearest and Dearest in 1969, and it’s conceivable that it crossed to the Antipodes with the British exodus of the 50s and 60s. (It’s certainly not a native Australianism.)

I was going to say I’d never heard that term in 20 years in England, but does it mean a wimp?

Wimp, sissy, crybaby, shandy-drinker. Yep. The apparent origin is from “he’s flapping like a big girl’s blouse”, which would suggest that the image is one of a big girl’s big blouse.

I think you can say it without “big”, if so, and that may be more common.

Not in my experience, though.

I’ve always understood it to be a “girl’s blouse” that is “big”, girl’s blouse meaning poof, jesse, whatever and big adding nothing particular to it except scansion. Try saying “he’s a girl’s blouse” in the pub after a couple of pints - it doesn’t really work, does it? But “big girl’s blouse” has a satisfactory rhythm to it.

The emphasis is, to my mind, equal on all three words.

see also “big poof”, “great big jesse” etc

Could it be that a big girl’s blouse covers up a pair of tits of greater than normal proportion?

It’s really a northern English expression. It’s a kind of rule - the further north you get,m the more elaborate the insults become. In fact, you can compund them to make full sentences.

“he’s a ‘big girl’s blouse’ and he wants ‘locking up and his clothes burning’ “.

Internally, the streses on the words are all equal, but as part of a sentence each word is stressed slightly more than the surrounding words. At least as far as I’m aware. And I’m not so green as I’m cabbage looking.

Would it help to read up Moore on organic wholes?

Saw this phrase in Hellblazer once. It baffled me. Never heard it in Australia.

Saw this phrase in Hellblazer once. It baffled me. Never heard it in Australia.

Damn, I love this enrich your word power stuff. It makes me feel - richer. Big Jesse? Shandy drinker? I had no idea.

You spelled “Whoa” wrong.

On the upside, I spelled ‘woah’ right.

The spouse from South London (the one in England) uses the phrase, as does Terry Pratchett in at least one of his lovely Discworld novels (I think it’s Soul Music). But isn’t it “Jessie” (the girl’s name once often found in Scotland) rather than Jesse, the male biblical person?

This phrase is widely used in Australia, as John Quiggin’s examples demonstrate. But mostly ironically, with relish at its anachronistic Englishness.

It’s definitely got an even stress across the words. Best employed with a tutting threat of disappointment - ‘get that down you, ye big girls blouse’ - a hovering normative tool for any situation. Transgressors would get hit with something harder - numpty, fanny, or the aforementioned jessie.
I don’t get to use it cos I’m not Northern. Shame, it’s such naunced enclave of insultdom.