undergarment

Etymology

It is formed from English under + garment.^[2][3][4] Dictionary.com writes the first part as the prefix under-.^[5] Under is from Old English under,^[2][6] and garment is a reduced form of garnement, from Old French garnement (“garment, attire, clothes”), from garnir (“to fit out, provide, adorn”), of Germanic origin.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A garment made to be worn under another: the 1520s in Etymonline,^[2] and 1530 in Merriam-Webster.^[7][3] Dictionary.com gives the range 1520–30.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its plain sense of something worn beneath another layer,^[2][3] and modern dictionaries add that it usually lies next to the skin.^[8][9] Wiktionary also records it for the temple garments of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.^[1]

Timeline

• 1520s – a garment worn under another.^[2] Merriam-Webster gives 1530.^[7][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A garment worn under outer clothes, usually next to the skin; an item of underwear: She packed three warm undergarments for the climb.^[9][8][3]
2. Among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a temple garment.^[1]

Related words

• garment
• garnish
• under

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins