dress

Pronunciation

• IPA: /dres/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English dressen,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French dresser (“to arrange, prepare, set up”), earlier drecier,^[4][2] from Vulgar Latin *dīrēctiāre (“to make straight”),^[4][2][5] from Latin dīrēctus (“straight”),^[4][2] past participle of dīrigere (“to set straight”), from dis- and regere (“to direct, guide”),^[4] from Proto-Indo-European *reg- (“to move in a straight line”).^[4] The noun is from the verb.^[2][4][5] It is related to direct and address.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make straight; to direct, guide, control: probably before 1300, in Arthour and Merlin,^[2] and about 1300 in Etymonline, where it also means “to prepare for cooking”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The original idea was making something straight or putting it right, which survives in the military dress ranks, to align soldiers.^[4][5] To prepare food, a wound, land or stone came from the sense “to make ready”.^[5][6] “To decorate, adorn” is from 1381,^[2] and “to put on clothes” from about 1395, in Chaucer.^[2][4] The noun meant “a setting to rights” in 1565,^[7][5] and clothing, especially clothing suited to rank or a ceremony, from 1606, in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra.^[2] A woman's garment of skirt and bodice is from 1638.^[2][4] Dress up is from the 1670s, dress down “to wear less formal clothes” by 1960, and dress someone down, “to scold”, by 1876.^[4] The dress rehearsal is from 1828.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – to make straight, direct.^[4][2]
• 1381 – to adorn.^[2]
• c. 1395 – to put on clothes.^[2]
• 1565 – noun, a setting right.^[7]
• 1606 – noun, clothing.^[2]
• 1638 – a woman's garment.^[2]
• 1828 – dress rehearsal.^[4]
• 1876 – dress down, to scold.^[4]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To put clothes on; to clothe.
2. To wear clothes of a particular kind, or formal clothes.
3. To decorate or arrange: to dress a shop window.
4. To clean and apply a bandage or medication to a wound.
5. To prepare food for cooking, or add a dressing to a salad.
6. To arrange troops in a straight line.

Noun

1. A one-piece garment for a woman or girl, with a skirt and bodice.
2. Clothing, especially of a particular kind: evening dress.

Adjective

1. Suitable for formal occasions: a dress shirt.

Word family

• hairdresser
• outdress
• overdress
• redress
• underdress
• dresser
• dressing
• dressing-down

Related words

• dressage
• undressed
• direct
• address
• right

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
7. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press