vogue

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French vogue (“a rowing; course, success, fashion”),^[2][3][4][5] from voguer (“to row, sway, set sail”),^[4][5][6] which the OED, Merriam-Webster and the Oxford Dictionary of English derive from Italian vogare (“to row, go well”),^[2][3][7][8] the source of voga (“rowing, fashion”).^[7][9] The Italian verb is probably of Germanic origin,^[9][4][6] from a word related to Old High German wagōn (“to float, fluctuate”) and German Woge (“wave, billow”);^[4][9][6] Barnhart and Ayto trace the French verb to an Old Low German verb meaning to float on the waves, and Barnhart takes Italian vogare, Spanish bogar and Old Occitan vogar as borrowings from French.^[5][10] Etymonline adds Proto-Indo-European *wegʰ- (“to go, move”), the root of way and wagon.^[4][10] The verb meaning to dance by striking model-like poses is from the name of the fashion magazine Vogue.^[2][3][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The vogue, the foremost place in popular esteem: 1571, in the Admonitioun to my Lord Regentis Grace.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Ayto sees in the word the notion of being carried along on the waves of fashion: the French word for rowing was extended to a smooth, easy course, then a successful course, and then a fashionable one.^[10][4] The Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins notes that most of its present senses developed in the 17th century.^[12] Popularity or general acceptance without the article is recorded from 1604 in Barnhart and 1617 in the OED,^[5][2] and the phrase in vogue from 1643.^[2][4] The senses "natural bent" (1590) and "general course or tendency" (1626–1729) did not last,^[2] nor did the verbs meaning to cry up or bring into vogue (1661–1710) and to float (1687).^[2][4] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as fashion or mode.^[13] The magazine Vogue began in 1892,^[4][12] and in the late 1980s dancers in clubs began to vogue, imitating the poses of models on the catwalk; the OED's first quotation is from 1988.^[12][2][3] In British gay slang of the 1960s and 1970s, vogues were cigarettes.^[14]

Timeline

• 1571 – the vogue, the foremost place in popular esteem.^[2][5]
• 1590 – natural bent or capacity (obsolete).^[2]
• 1604 – popularity, general acceptance.^[5]
• 1643 – in vogue.^[2]
• c. 1661 – verb, to cry up (obsolete).^[2]
• 1673 – a vogue, a period of popularity.^[2]
• 1892 – the fashion magazine Vogue founded.^[4][12]
• 1927 – voguish, fashionable.^[5]
• 1988 – verb, to dance by striking poses like a fashion model.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The fashion or style that is popular at a particular time: Wide trousers were the vogue that summer.
2. A period of popularity or general favour: The vogue for these board games did not last.
3. in vogue: fashionable, popular at present.

Adjective

1. Fashionable or popular, especially for a short time: a vogue word.

Verb

1. To dance by striking a series of stylized poses like those of fashion models.

Word family

• voguer
• voguish
• vogue word

Related words

• way
• wagon

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
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. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com