garment

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English garment, a reduced form of garnement,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Old French garnement (“equipment, armour, vestments, attire”),^[6][2][7][8] also garniment,^[6][9][10] from garnir (“to equip, fit out, provide, adorn”) and the suffix -ment.^[6][3][11] The French verb, also the source of garnish, is from Frankish *warnjan,^[2][7] from Proto-Germanic *warnon (“to be cautious, guard, provide for”), the source of warn,^[2] from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to cover”).^[2][12] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from the second quarter of the 12th century, meaning defence and armour as well as clothing.^[13] In modern French the word survives only in mauvais garnement (“a rascal”).^[6][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

An article of clothing, especially an outer one such as a gown or cloak: the OED dates the word from 1340,^[6] and Barnhart records garnement probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder.^[3] The shortened garment is recorded probably before 1400^[3] or about 1400.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The French word covered equipment and armour as well as clothes,^[6][13] but in English it was used for clothing from the start.^[15][6] The OED notes that the fuller garnement was the commoner form until about 1500, and that garment seems to have arisen in the north.^[6] Chaucer and Gower still wrote garnement.^[16] The figurative sense of an outward covering in which something appears dates from 1585,^[6][17] and the verb, to clothe, from before 1547, chiefly in the participle garmented.^[6][3][4] The OED notes that the noun is now somewhat rhetorical,^[6] and in 1859 it records its use in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for a set of long underwear.^[6] In Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire dialect a garment was a chemise.^[18]

Timeline

• probably before 1300 – garnement, in Kyng Alisaunder.^[3]
• 1340 – an article of dress.^[6]
• probably before 1400 – the reduced form garment.^[3][2]
• before 1547 – verb, to clothe.^[6][3]
• 1585 – figuratively, an outward covering.^[6]
• 1859 – Latter-day Saints' undergarment.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. An article of clothing, especially an outer one such as a coat or dress: She hung each garment carefully in the wardrobe.^[10][4][6]
2. An article of underclothing, such as a foundation garment.^[4]
3. (figurative) An outward covering or appearance.^[10][6][17]

Verb

1. To clothe in or as if in a garment; usually in the past participle garmented.^[10][4][6]

Word family

• garmentless
• overgarment
• undergarment
• foundation garment
• garment bag
• garment district

Related words

• garnish
• garrison
• garniture
• warn

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
13. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ 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)
16. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
17. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
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)