drape

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English drapen, also draperen,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French draper (“to weave, make cloth”),^[4][3][5][2] from drap (“cloth”),^[4][3] from Late Latin drappus (“cloth”).^[3][5][6][7] Hoad, the Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford take the modern sense separately, as a back-formation from drapery suggested by French draper (“to cover with cloth”),^[8][9][6] and Ayto describes the same feedback from drapery.^[10] The noun is partly borrowed from French drap (“cloth”) and partly from the verb,^{[11][6][12][3]} while Etymonline derives it from the verb only.^[4] Late Latin drappus may be of Gaulish or Celtic origin,^{[3][6][7][8][10]} and Barnhart points to the Gaulish name Drappus;^[3] Skeat called it of unknown origin.^[13] Klein goes further, to Proto-Indo-European *drep- (“to tear off”), comparing Lithuanian drāpanos (“linen”) and Ancient Greek δρέπω (drépō, “to pluck”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To ornament with cloth hangings: Etymonline says about 1400, and Barnhart probably before 1400,^[4][3] with the Middle English Dictionary's example of a hall drapred, in the Destruction of Troy.^[2] To weave wool into cloth: 1436, "Spayneshe wolle in Flaundres draped is", in the Libel of English Policy, which is also the OED's first date.^[11][2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a term of the cloth trade, and Johnson (1755) still defines it as "to make cloth";^[14] that sense died out in the 17th century.^[11][6] Johnson also has a sense to jeer or satirize, and the OED has an isolated use of 1683, in W. Temple, for reprimanding, as in obsolete French.^[14][11] According to Ayto, the use of drapery for loose cloth fed back into the verb in the 19th century, giving the current sense.^[10] Weekley and the OED find it first in Tennyson's The Princess (1847),^[15][11] and the arranging of cloth in folds follows in 1862.^[11] The noun, cloth or drapery from 1665, came to mean curtains, especially in North America: Etymonline finds drapes by 1895, and the OED's first quotation is a Sears, Roebuck catalogue of 1908.^[11][4][6] Both the verb (1916) and the noun (1950) entered surgery.^[11] In the 1940s the verb extended to placing oneself loosely on or against something, especially when drunk (1943).^[11][4] American black slang had drape for a long-jacketed suit from 1939, and the verb for dressing up from 1944, and the suit later passed to Britain's Teddy Boys in the 1950s.^[16][11]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – to ornament with cloth hangings.^[4][3][2]
• 1436 – to weave into cloth (obsolete by 1683).^[11][2]
• 1665 – noun, cloth, drapery.^[11][3][12]
• 1683 – to reprimand.^[11]
• 1847 – to cover with cloth or drapery.^[11][4]
• 1862 – to arrange in graceful folds.^[11]
• 1889 – noun, the way cloth is draped.^[11]
• 1908 – noun, in the plural, curtains.^[11] Etymonline finds this by 1895.^[4]
• 1916 – to cover a surgical patient with sterile cloth.^[11]
• 1939 – noun, in slang, a suit with a long jacket.^[16] The OED and Etymonline date it to 1945.^[11][4]
• 1943 – to place oneself loosely against something or someone.^[11][4]
• 1944 – in slang, to dress up.^[16]
• 1950 – noun, a sterile covering used in surgery.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cover or adorn with cloth, or with something hanging in folds: They draped the stage in black velvet.^[17][12][11]
2. To arrange or hang in folds, or to hang in this way.^[17][11][6]
3. To place or hang loosely and casually: He draped his jacket over a chair.^[17][12][11]
4. (surgery) To cover a patient or operating table with sterile cloth.^[11]
5. (obsolete, 1436–1683) To make into cloth; to weave.^[11][12][6]

Noun

1. A curtain or similar hanging, usually in the plural; chiefly in North America.^{[17][12][11][6]}
2. A cloth that covers something in folds; drapery.^[17][11]
3. (surgery) A sterile covering used in an operating room.^[12][11]
4. The way in which fabric hangs: the soft drape of a silk blouse.^[17][12][6]
5. (slang) A man's suit with a long jacket and narrow trousers; also drape suit.^[11][6][16]
6. (archaic) Cloth or textiles.^[12][6]

Word family

• drapey
• drapable
• drapability
• undrape

Related words

• drab
• draper
• drapery
• trappings

Usage notes

In northern and midland English dialect, and recorded from Cotgrave's dictionary of 1611, drape also meant a cow or ewe culled from the herd for fattening, especially one that had gone dry, with a verb "to cull" from before 1642; the OED calls its origin uncertain, comparing Old Norse dráp (“slaughter”).^[11][18]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
18. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)