Etymologically
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dresser

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈdɹɛsə/[1]

dresser1 piece of furniture

Etymology

The piece of furniture is inherited from Middle English dressour, also dressor and dresser,[2] borrowed from Anglo-Norman dressour, also dresseur and dressouer, a kitchen sideboard or table,[3][4] recorded in Anglo-Norman from 1318.[4] It is formed from dresser (“to prepare”) with the suffix that English has as -ory.[3][5] The OED compares Old French dreçor (1285) and dressoir (1321), still the modern French word.[3][6][7] The French verb, also drecier, meant to set up, arrange or make straight,[8][9][10] and is the source of dress; it goes back to Vulgar Latin *directiō (“to make straight”), from Latin directus (“straight”).[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A kitchen table on which food was prepared, or a side table in a hall from which it was served: 1352, in a document quoted in Yaxley's glossary of historical documents.[3] The MED's first quotation is a will from York of about 1393,[2] and Etymonline dates this sense to the late 14th century.[11]

Semantic evolution

From 1538, in Elyot's Dictionary, the word was used for a sideboard on which crockery, glasses and cutlery were kept, with display shelves above drawers and cupboards;[3] this is the dresser of British kitchens.[10][6] The food-preparing table of the first sense is now historical.[3][9] In North America, from 1828, a dresser is a dressing table or a chest of drawers for clothes, usually with a mirror;[3][10] Etymonline dates the sense "chest, dressing bureau" from 1895.[11] In Scots, Irish and English dialects it was in general use for a long kitchen sideboard, sometimes fixed to the wall, on which crockery stood, with forms such as drisser and drusser in Cumberland.[12]

Timeline

  • 1352 – a kitchen table for preparing food; a side table for serving it.[3] Etymonline dates it to the late 14th century.[11]
  • c. 1393 – dressor, in a will from York.[2]
  • 1538 – a sideboard with shelves for dishes.[3]
  • 1571 – perhaps a tablecloth (rare, obsolete).[3]
  • 1828 – North American, a dressing table or chest of drawers.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A piece of furniture with shelves above and cupboards or drawers below, for storing and displaying dishes: an oak dresser lined with blue plates.[10][9][3]
  2. (US) A chest of drawers for clothes, usually with a mirror on top.[10][9][3]
  3. (obsolete) A table on which food was prepared, or from which it was served.[9][3]

Word family

  • Welsh dresser

dresser2 person who dresses

Etymology

The person or thing that dresses is formed from English dress + -er.[3][6][9][11] The OED notes earlier surnames, Thomas le Dresceour (1300) and John le Dressour (1360), but cannot tell whether they show the English word or an otherwise unrecorded Anglo-Norman noun;[3] the Anglo-Norman Dictionary records dresceour (“one who prepares or dresses”) as a surname from 1300.[4] The verb is from Old French dresser (“to prepare, arrange, set up”).[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who guides or directs others, a sense now obsolete: about 1450, in a Meditations on the Life of Christ.[3] Etymonline dates the noun from about 1300, in the sense of a person who prepares or furnishes something.[11]

Semantic evolution

The sense of a person who prepares, treats or finishes something, especially a worker preparing a material, dates from 1520, in Whittington's Vulgaria;[3][9] Merriam-Webster lists finishers of leather, polishers of pottery, cleaners of fish and pruners of vines among them.[9] In type-founding, from 1683, a dresser smoothed and finished newly cast type.[3] Before 1596 the word was used of a person who arranged hair,[3] and since 1632, in Massinger, of one employed to dress another, especially a lady's maid;[3] Etymonline dates the sense of one employed in clothing others to the 1510s.[11] Johnson (1755) gave two senses: one who puts on the clothes of another, and one who trims or adjusts anything.[13] The theatre's dresser, who helps actors into their costumes, is recorded from 1731,[3][6] and a person who dresses stylishly, or in a stated way (a good dresser), from 1679.[3] A surgeon's assistant who dressed wounds was called a dresser from 1621, and in the army, from 1793 to 1847, a soldier on whom a parade took its alignment.[3] The word was also used for tools: a shoemaker's tool (1600–70), a plumber's mallet for smoothing lead (1688–1703),[3] and in Shropshire a tool that was a hammer at one end and a pick at the other.[12] In gay slang it has meant a transvestite, short for cross-dresser, since 1992.[14]

Timeline

  • c. 1450 – a person who guides or directs (obsolete).[3] Etymonline dates the noun to about 1300.[11]
  • 1520 – a person who prepares or finishes a material.[3][9]
  • before 1596 – a person who arranges hair.[3]
  • 1600 – a shoemaker's tool (obsolete by 1670).[3]
  • 1621 – a surgeon's assistant who dresses wounds.[3]
  • 1632 – a person employed to dress another.[3]
  • 1679 – a person who dresses in a stated way, a stylish dresser.[3]
  • 1731 – in the theatre, a person who helps actors dress.[3]
  • 1992 – gay slang, a transvestite.[14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A person who dresses in a particular way: a smart dresser.[10][3]
  2. (theatre) A person employed to help actors put on and take off their costumes and to look after them.[10][3][6]
  3. A person employed to dress another, such as a lady's maid.[3][6]
  4. A person who prepares or finishes a material or product, such as leather or pottery.[9][3][6]
  5. A tool used for dressing a material.[10][3]
  6. (historical) A surgeon's assistant whose chief task was dressing wounds.[3]

Word family

  • vinedresser
  • window dresser

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c 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 l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  12. ^ a b 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)
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com