Etymologically
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costume

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 17 October 2026 at 17:27. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /kɔs.tym/[1]

Forms

costume m (plural costumes)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian costume (“custom”) (about 1260),[2][3][4][5][1] which in the 16th century had taken the narrow artistic sense “the way of showing the age, rank and period of figures”.[3][2] The Italian word has the same origin as French coutume, Latin cōnsuētūdō (“custom, habit”),[2][6][1][7] so it is a doublet of coutume.[1] The Italian pronunciation, “costumé”, was still noted by the Académie in 1740.[8][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears as a painters' term, coustume, in a letter of Poussin of 1641, for faithfulness to the customs, dress and setting of a period, what was later called local colour.[2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

In that sense it was still alive about 1850 (Balzac, Delacroix).[3] In the 18th century, dress being the most visible mark of a group, it came to mean the way of dressing proper to a rank or period (1747), probably in the language of the theatre,[2][3][4] and then a whole outfit (1777), as in costume de théâtre.[2][3] The everyday sense, a man's suit of matching jacket and trousers, came in the 19th century with that garment.[3][8] Costume de bain “swimsuit” is now old in France but current in Belgium, Switzerland and Quebec.[3][9]

Timeline

  • 1641 – Coustume in Poussin.[2][3]
  • 1662 – Costume (Fréart de Chambray).[2][5]
  • 1747 – The way of dressing of a rank or time.[2][4]
  • 1777 – A particular outfit.[2]
  • 1787 – Costumé, with costumer following in 1792.[4]
  • 1866 – A man's suit (Larousse).[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A man's suit: costume trois pièces.[10][1]
  2. The dress typical of a country, period or group: costume régional.[10][1]
  3. An outfit for an occasion or a part; a costume or disguise.[10][1]
  4. Costume de bain (Belgium, Switzerland, Quebec): a swimsuit.[10][9]

Word family

  • costumier

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 1091a
  8. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  9. ^ a b Poirier, Claude, et al. (2024), Dictionnaire historique du français québécois, 2nd ed., Trésor de la langue française au Québec, Université Laval, dhfq.org
  10. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert