tunic

Etymology

It was first borrowed as inherited from Old English tunece, borrowed from Latin tunica;^[2][3][4][5] the modern word is probably a later borrowing from Anglo-Norman tunike and Middle French tunique,^[2][6][3] together with the Latin word itself.^[2][6][7] Dictionary.com suggests that the Old English word may also have continued into the modern one,^[8] and the OED leaves the two routes side by side, while Etymonline says the French borrowing replaced the Old English word.^[2][3] The Anglo-Norman form is recorded from the late 12th century, for a belted tunic or shirt and for the tunicle worn by a subdeacon.^[9] In Latin tunica was a garment worn by both sexes, and also a membrane or coat of an organ or of a plant.^[2] It is probably of Semitic origin:^{[2][6][10][11]} the OED and Barnhart compare Biblical Hebrew כותנת (kuttōneth, “coat”),^[2][6] and the AHD traces it to a Phoenician source from Central Semitic *kuttān.^[12] The same Semitic word was borrowed into Greek as Ancient Greek χιτών (khitṓn), the source of chiton.^[2][3][11] Barnhart adds that the Latin word may come by metathesis from an earlier Latin *cituna.^[6] The Latin word is also the source of tonaca, túnica and tunihha.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A loose, gown-like garment reaching some way down the legs: in Old English, in the translation of Orosius's History.^[2][7] Etymonline dates the Middle English form tunice to the mid-12th century,^[3] and Barnhart's first record of the reborrowed tunyk is from before 1481.^[13][6]

Semantic evolution

In Old English the word glossed the Latin garment and was also used of a coat or of a priest's robe.^[14][5] The anatomical sense, a membrane enclosing or lining an organ, was taken over from Latin by about 1450,^[2][7] and was later extended to the skin of a plant part (1717) and to the outer covering of sea squirts and their relatives (1820), the source of tunicate.^[2] From the 16th century the word named a church vestment worn by subdeacons and bishops.^[2] In the 1660s it began to be used of modern dress,^[3][2] above all of the close-fitting coat of a soldier's or policeman's uniform,^[2][7] and in the late 17th and the 18th century also of a woman's garment with a bodice and upper skirt worn over a longer skirt.^[2][7][3] The 20th century added the sleeveless pleated dress of a girl's school uniform (1923), a loose thigh-length top worn over trousers or a skirt (1955) and a medical overshirt (1943),^[2] and since 1892 a light sleeveless top worn by runners and cyclists.^[2]

Timeline

• Old English – tunece, a long loose garment.^[2][4]
• mid-12th century – Middle English tunice.^[3]
• c. 1450 – a membrane enveloping an organ of the body.^[2]
• 1541 – a church vestment worn by subdeacons and bishops.^[2]
• 1667 – a close-fitting coat, later one forming part of a uniform.^[2][7]
• 1677 – a woman's dress-like garment worn over a longer skirt.^[2]
• 1717 – the integument of a part of a plant.^[2]
• 1820 – the covering of a tunicate.^[2]
• 1892 – a sleeveless athletic top.^[2]
• 1923 – a girl's pleated school dress, a gymslip.^[2]
• 1955 – a loose thigh-length top worn with trousers or a skirt.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A simple slip-on garment, with or without sleeves and usually reaching to the knees or below, worn in ancient Greece and Rome: The statue shows a boy in a short tunic.^[10][15][2]
2. A close-fitting jacket forming part of the uniform of soldiers or police officers.^[15][2][7]
3. A loose hip-length or thigh-length garment worn over a skirt or trousers.^[15][2]
4. A short sleeveless pleated dress worn by girls as part of a school uniform; a gymslip.^[2]
5. (anatomy, botany, zoology) A membrane or layer that covers, lines or encloses an organ or part; a tunica.^[15][10][2]
6. A tunicle, the vestment of a subdeacon.^[2][7]

Word family

• subtunic
• supertunic
• undertunic

Related words

• tunica
• tunicle
• tunicate
• chiton

References

1. ^ 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 w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
5. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
13. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
14. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
15. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins