vestment

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English vestement, also vestiment and vestment,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French vestement, also vestiment and vestment,^[4][2][5][6] now vêtement,^[4][6] from Latin vestīmentum (“clothing”),^[4][6][7] from vestiō (“to clothe”), from vestis (“garment”),^[7][8][9] which Etymonline takes back to Proto-Indo-European *wes- (“to clothe”).^[6] Dictionary.com treats it as a shortened form of vestiment and gives Medieval Latin vestīmentum the sense "priestly robe".^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

An article of attire worn by the clergy during divine service: 1303, in Robert Mannyng's Handlyng Synne.^[4] Etymonline dates the liturgical sense earlier, to about 1200,^[6] and Barnhart finds the word probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder.^[11] The Middle English Dictionary quotes "wiȝt vestemens" from before 1325.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Although Latin vestīmentum meant clothing in general, the church sense is the first recorded in English.^[4][6][10] The general sense of a robe or garment, often worn by a king or official, is recorded in Chaucer about 1386,^[4] and the Middle English Dictionary also has it for royal robes and grave clothes.^[2] Caxton used it figuratively in 1483 for anything that covers like a garment,^[4] a use the Shorter Oxford labels archaic and poetic.^[5] Johnson (1755) gives only "garment; part of dress",^[12] and Weekley notes that the current use belongs to the High Church revival, quoting a chronicle for 1 November 1552: "all copes and vestments were put downe through all England".^[13]

Timeline

• 1303 – a garment worn by clergy at divine service.^[4] Etymonline dates this sense to about 1200.^[6]
• c. 1386 – a garment, especially a robe worn by a king or official.^[4]
• 1483 – figurative, something that covers like a garment.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ceremonial garment worn by clergy or their assistants at a religious service, such as a chasuble: The priest laid out his vestments in the sacristy.^[14][5][3]
2. A garment or robe, especially one showing office, authority or rank.^[14][3][4]
3. (in the plural) Clothing, garb.^[3][5]
4. Something that covers like a garment (archaic, poetic): the white vestment of the winter hills.^[5][3][4]

Word family

• vestmental
• vestmented

Related words

• invest
• vest
• vesture
• vestiment
• vestry
• divest
• wear

Usage notes

The OED also lists a separate noun vestment, formed from the verb vest, for a right or privilege with which a person or body is invested, recorded from 1795.^[4]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins