attire

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English atiren,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French atirier (“to arrange, put in order, equip, dress”), later atirer,^[5][4][2] formed on the phrase a tire (“in order, in a row”),^[5][6][7] from a- (“to”) (from Latin ad-) and tire (“row, rank, order”).^[4][2][8] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from the third quarter of the 12th century, meaning to adorn, prepare, cook, equip and dress.^[9] The origin of the French noun is uncertain;^[5][6][10] Merriam-Webster takes it as Germanic, akin to Old English tīr (“glory”) and Old High German ziari (“adorned”),^[11] but the OED calls a connection with the Old High German word for beauty or adornment doubtful.^[5] The same French noun is behind tier.^[4][2][12] The English noun is from the verb,^[5][4][6][2] and the shortened form tire, to dress, also a headdress, now archaic, comes from it.^[7][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun, a person's complete equipment for war: 1250, in Laȝamon's Brut.^[5] The verb first meant to arm for war, in 1297, in Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle,^[5][3] and Barnhart's first record is Sir Tristrem, probably before 1300, of dressing meat.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The verb first meant to put in order, prepare or equip in any way, and only later to dress;^[7][14] Hoad dates the first to the 13th century and the second to the 14th.^[7] Weekley compares the similar narrowing of apparel.^[14] Middle English used it of fitting out a knight or an army, furnishing a room and readying a ship's tackle.^[3] The sense of dressing or adorning a person is recorded from before 1375, and is now literary, chiefly reflexive or passive.^[5][6] The noun followed: war equipment (1250–1440), finery (1382–1642), and dress or clothing, from about 1300.^[5][4] In the 16th and 17th centuries attire often meant a headdress: Trench notes that Milton's attired with stars means crowned, not clothed, with them.^[15][5] Since 1562 hunters and heralds have called the antlers of a stag its attire.^[5][15][16] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as clothes, dress or habit.^[17]

Timeline

• 1250 – noun, a person's equipment for war (obsolete by 1440).^[5]
• 1297 – verb, to arm for war (obsolete by 1606).^[5]
• c. 1300 – noun, dress, clothing.^[5][4]
• c. 1330 – to prepare venison for eating, in Sir Tristrem.^[5][2]
• 1330 – to put in order; to prepare, equip (both obsolete).^[5]
• before 1375 – to dress, adorn.^[5]
• c. 1380 – noun, a headdress (obsolete by 1611).^[5]
• 1382 – noun, finery, adornment (obsolete by 1642).^[5]
• 1562 – the antlers of a stag.^[5]
• 1610 – figurative, anything that covers or adorns.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Clothes, especially fine, formal or special ones: Evening attire is expected at the reception.^[16][11][6]
2. (hunting, heraldry) The antlers of a stag.^[16][11][5]
3. (obsolete, 1380–1611) A headdress.^[5][15]

Verb

1. To dress, especially in fine or special clothes; now chiefly reflexive or passive: The guests were attired in silk and velvet.^[16][11][6]

Word family

• attirement
• reattire

Related words

• tier
• tire
• apparel

Usage notes

A rare verb attire, to draw to itself, recorded once in 1549, has a separate source, French attirer (“to attract”).^[5]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b c Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
16. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.