chasuble

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English chesible,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French chesible,^[3][4][5][6] compare Medieval Latin cassibula.^[3][5] The current form corresponds to French chasuble and to Medieval Latin casubula;^[3] Anglo-Norman chasuble is recorded from the last third of the 12th century.^[7] These go back to Late Latin casubla (“hooded garment”),^{[8][9][10][6]} used by Gregory of Tours in the 6th century,^[11] an unexplained alteration of Latin casula (“little house, hut; hooded cloak”),^{[4][12][5][10]} the diminutive of casa (“cottage, house, hut”), itself of uncertain origin.^[11][12] The OED and Weekley explain the forms by popular types *casipula and *casupula, as in Italian casipola and casupola (“little house, hut”).^[3][13] The American Heritage Dictionary instead analyses the Latin noun as Ancient Greek κάσσος (kássos, “thick, rough garment”), which it calls Semitic, comparing Akkadian kusītu (“garb”), with the diminutive Latin -ula.^[8] Weekley calls the connection with the Latin for "little house" dubious.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A vestment worn by the priest at Mass: about 1300, as chesible, in the South English Legendary life of Thomas Becket.^[3][2][4] Barnhart agrees for the older form,^[12] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives the 14th century.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The Latin casula, a little house, was already the ordinary name of an outer garment in Augustine, about 400: a large round sleeveless cloak with a hood.^[3][4] Etymonline explains the transfer by the resemblance of hooded garments to little houses,^[4] and the OED quotes Isidore's account that it covers the whole person like a small house.^[3] The OED adds that it was a popular name for the classical Latin paenula, worn by peasants and travellers; monks wore it too, and the Council of Ratisbon in 742 made it the proper outdoor dress of the clergy.^[3] The name for the vestment of the priest at service was at first planeta, and the first undoubted use of casula for it dates from the 8th or 9th century, after which it supplanted the older names.^[3] In English the word has had that sense throughout, though Middle English also applied it to the vestments of Jewish and pagan priests and even of an angel.^[3][2] Variants of chesible lasted into the 16th century, and the form chasuble then took their place:^[5][12][4] the OED dates the replacement to about 1700.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – chesible, a priest's vestment at Mass, in the South English Legendary.^[3][2]
• c. 1430–40 – another priestly garment, the Jewish ephod, in the Wycliffite Bible (obsolete).^[3]
• 1611 – the form chasuble, in Cotgrave's dictionary.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wide, sleeveless outer vestment worn over the alb and stole by the priest celebrating Mass or the Eucharist.^{[3][9][8][14]}
2. (obsolete, c. 1430–40) Another priestly garment, such as the Jewish ephod.^[3][2]

Word family

• chasubled

Related words

• casino
• casa

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins