Etymologically
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dress

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Pronunciation

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

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