why is a boiler suit called a boiler suit?

Question

is it because you get hot in the suit or because the people who wear them repair boilers or something else?

Answer 1

This is sometimes called a coverall. In American English, it is nearly always referred to as "coveralls". It is a one-piece garment with full-length sleeves and legs like a jumpsuit, but usually less tight-fitting. It is often worn as protective clothing over "street" clothes at work, but sometimes is worn directly over shirt and underclothes. Its main feature is that it has no gap between jacket and trousers or between lapels, and no loose jacket tails. It often has a long thin pocket down the outside of the right thigh to hold long tools. It usually has a front fastening extending the whole length of the front of the body up to the throat, with no lapels. This fastening can be:

Buttons.
A zipper.
Velcro, as nowadays in the British Royal Air Force (RAF).
Snap fasteners or press-studs.
Boilersuits with an attached hood are available.

They are often issued by factories to their workmen, with the firm's badge on.

The French police unit called CRS use boilersuits as uniforms.

A dark blue coverall is the current working uniform of the U.S. Navy, with the owner's name and "U.S. Navy" on the chest, and rank insignia on the collar points.

Similar coveralls in olive drab (and more recently, desert tan) are also used by the crews of armored fighting vehicles in the US Army and Marine Corps, where they are sometimes referred to as "CVCs", an abbreviation of the term Combat Vehicle Crewman.

Answer 2

My guess is that it's your first reason, because you boil in it, especially when slogging up and down ladders painting, or cutting hedges. Repairing boilers isn't really very hot work, so I don't think it would be called a "boiler suit" for that reason. Could also be that the suit itself can be boiled to help get it clean.

Answer 3

it is big and made to take a beating and last