disguise

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English disguisen, also desgisen and degisen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French desguisier, also deguisier and later desguiser, modern French déguiser.^{[2][5][6][7][8]} The Old French verb is formed from des- (“away, off”), from Latin dis-, and guise (“manner, style, appearance”);^{[6][5][9][3][10]} the French noun came through the Romance form seen in Italian guisa and Spanish guisa from Old High German wīsa (“manner, mode, appearance”), related to wise in the sense "manner".^[2][11] The primary sense was thus "to put out of one's usual guise or manner of dress".^[2][10][5] In Anglo-Norman the verb, recorded from 1150–70, already meant to disguise, to conceal, and to disguise oneself.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

To change one's usual style of dress, especially to dress showily or in a new fashion, with no idea of concealment: about 1325, in a poem on the times of Edward II.^[2][13][11] Barnhart finds degysen, to change one's appearance to hide one's identity, probably before 1300 in Kyng Alisaunder, and dysgysen, to dress up elaborately, in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne (about 1303).^[6]

Semantic evolution

Weekley and the Oxford Dictionary of English stress that the word did not at first imply concealment;^[14][13] the sense of dressing up in a new or showy fashion lasted until 1563.^[2] The concealing sense, changing someone's dress or appearance so as to hide their identity, appears in 1340 (reflexive, in the Ayenbite) and before 1375 (William of Palerne);^[2] Etymonline dates it to about 1300.^[5] From 1398 the verb was also used of altering the look of something to mislead, and since Shakespeare's Henry V of hiding the true nature of a feeling or situation.^[2][5] The old idea of change survives in disguised in liquor, drunk (1560s), where a person's behaviour is changed by drink;^[5][14] the verb meaning "to make drunk" is recorded from 1560, in J. Heywood, and is now archaic.^[2][15] The noun, first a new or extravagant fashion of dress (1340),^[2] came to mean the altered appearance used to hide one's identity (before 1400) and the costume itself (1596, in Spenser),^[2][6] and false appearance or pretence from 1632.^[2][5] Its figurative use for a hidden or altered form, as in a blessing in disguise, dates from 1709.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1325 – to dress in a new or showy fashion (obsolete after 1563).^[2]
• 1340 – reflexive, to disguise oneself; noun, a new fashion of dress.^[2]
• 1398 – to misrepresent the appearance of something.^[2]
• before 1400 – noun, the state of being disguised.^[2][6]
• 1560 – to make drunk.^[2]
• 1596 – noun, a costume used to disguise oneself.^[2]
• 1632 – noun, false appearance, pretence.^[2][5]
• 1709 – noun, figurative, a hidden or altered form.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To change the appearance or dress of oneself or another so as to hide one's identity: The detective disguised herself as a cleaner.
2. To hide the true nature of something; to conceal or misrepresent: He could not disguise his relief.
3. (archaic) To make drunk.

Noun

1. Clothing, a mask or other means used to hide one's identity.
2. The state of being disguised: The prince travelled in disguise.
3. A false appearance or pretence.

Word family

• disguisedly
• disguisement
• disguiser
• disguisable
• disguisedness

Related words

• guise
• wise

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
13. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com