gown

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English goune, borrowed from Old French goune (“robe, coat; nun's habit”), also gone and gonne,^[2][3][4][5] from Late Latin gunna (“a fur or leather garment”).^[4][6][7][8] The word is shared by the Romance languages, as gonna, gona and gona.^[2][9] St Boniface used gunna in the 8th century for a fur garment allowed to old or sick monks.^[2][3] Its ultimate origin is unknown.^[10][9] The OED, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English compare Byzantine Greek γοῦνα (goûna, “a fur or fur-lined garment”), a common name for a coarse garment sometimes made of skins;^[2][7][11] Klein thinks the word was probably taken from a language of the Italian or Balkan peninsula,^[12] and Partridge suggests a Gaulish origin.^[13] Some scholars have compared Welsh gŵn and called the word Celtic, but the OED notes that the Welsh word, like gúna and gùn, is probably itself taken from English.^[2][12] The Anglo-Norman form gune is recorded from the late 12th century for a tunic, a seaman's smock or a nun's habit.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

A long, loose outer garment: Etymonline dates the word to about 1300,^[3] and Barnhart's first example, probably from before 1325, is gune for an official's robe.^[10][15] The OED's first quotation is from Langland's Piers Plowman (1377), for the robe of a civic officer.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the gown was worn by both men and women as ordinary dress,^[2] and the robe that marked an office, such as an alderman's or a judge's, is recorded from the late 14th century.^[2][3] It was used for the Roman toga from 1387, in Trevisa, and Johnson called it "the dress of peace".^[2][16] The legal and clerical gown, and the profession that wore it, appear from 1564, and the academic gown from 1665;^[2] from the 1650s gown stood for the members of a university, usually set against town.^[2][3][9] In the 18th century gown was the usual word for what is now called a dress, a use kept longer in the United States than in Britain and partly revived in the 20th century in fashion and in compounds such as nightgown and bridal gown.^[3] The protective gown of hospital staff and patients is recorded from 1900.^[2] The verb, to dress in a gown, dates from about 1485,^[2] 1422 in Barnhart.^[15] In Scots, gown-alane meant wearing only indoor clothes, without a cloak.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – a long, loose outer garment.^[3]
• 1377 – the robe of a civic officer.^[2]
• 1387 – the Roman toga.^[2]
• 1397 – a woman's gown.^[2]
• c. 1485 – verb, to dress in a gown.^[2]
• 1564 – the gown of the legal and clerical professions.^[2]
• 1600 – a dressing gown or nightgown.^[2]
• 1659 – the members of a university, as opposed to the town.^[2]
• 1665 – the academic gown.^[2]
• 1900 – a protective hospital gown.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A long dress, especially an elegant one worn on a formal occasion: She wore a silk evening gown to the reception.
2. A loose, flowing outer robe worn as a sign of office or status, as by judges, clergy and members of a university.
3. A loose garment worn by surgeons or hospital patients.
4. A dressing gown or nightgown.
5. The members of a university, as opposed to the other people of the town: town and gown.

Verb

1. To dress in a gown; often in the passive: The graduates were gowned and ready.

Word family

• gownsman
• nightgown
• ungowned
• cap and gown
• dressing gown
• evening gown
• Geneva gown
• tea gown

Related words

• robe
• frock
• toga

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
14. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
15. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ 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)