couturier

Etymology

It is borrowed from French couturier (“dressmaker”),^{[1][2][3][4][5]} from Old French cousturier “tailor's assistant”,^[1][2][4] from cousture “sewing, seam”,^[1][2][4] from Vulgar Latin *cōnsūtūra, from Latin cōnsuere “to sew together”.^[2] It is related to couture and sew.^[1][2][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A male dressmaker or fashion designer (1885 as a French word in English;^[3] 1899 in Barnhart, Merriam-Webster and the OED).^[2][4][7]

Semantic evolution

The feminine couturière “dressmaker” appeared in English earlier, in 1818.^[2][3] An 1885 article quoted by Etymonline called the couturier an essentially modern Parisian figure, associated with the great designers of the Second Empire such as Worth.^[3] The word also names a fashion house itself.^[1][4][6]

Timeline

• 1818 – couturière.^[2][3]
• 1885 – couturier as a French word.^[3]
• 1899 – couturier in English.^[2][4][7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person who designs, makes and sells fashionable clothes, especially haute couture.
2. An establishment engaged in couture; a fashion house.

Related words

• couture
• haute couture
• couturière

References

1. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
7. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press