couture

Forms

couture f (plural coutures)^[1] Old French costure (about 1150, first written custurae about 980), then cousture (late 15th century).^[2][3] The spelling couture dates from the 17th century.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French costure, inherited from Vulgar Latin *cōnsūtūra, formed on cōnsūtum, the supine of cōnsuō (“to sew together”) (whence coudre²), in the same way as Imperial Latin sūtūra (whence suture) on the simple verb suō (“to sew”).^{[3][5][2][6][1]}

Cognate with Italian costura, Occitan cosdura, Catalan costura, Spanish costura and Portuguese costura.^[7][6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is custurae in the Passion (late 10th century), for a row of stitches joining two pieces of cloth, a seam.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

From the seam come the figurative phrases sous toutes les coutures and battre à plate couture (15th century); Rey thinks the latter alludes to tailors flattening new seams by beating them with a lath.^[2] By analogy it named the joint between two planks of a ship, filled with tarred oakum (about 1155), and familiarly a scar (before 1243), a sense now old but surviving in the adjective couturé.^[3][2]

As the noun of action for coudre² it meant “sewing” from about 1150 and “the art of sewing” from 1690.^[3][2] By metonymy it named a dressmaker's workshop (1680) and then the profession of the couturier, as in haute couture.^[2][9] English borrowed couture “fashionable dressmaking”, short for haute couture, in 1908.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 980 – Custurae “seam” appears in the Passion.^[3][2]
• c. 1150 – Costure means “the act of sewing” in the Eneas.^[3]
• c. 1155 – Wace's Brut uses it for the seam between a ship's planks.^[3][2]
• before 1243 – Philippe Mousket uses it for a scar.^[3]
• late 15th century – Commynes has à plate cousture, of an army utterly beaten.^[3][8]
• 1676 – Félibien records it as a roofer's term for the fold joining two metal sheets.^[3]
• 1680 – Used for a dressmaker's workshop.^[2][9]
• 1690 – Furetière records apprendre la couture, the art of sewing.^[3]
• 1845 – Bescherelle records the marks of a mould's joints on a plaster cast.^[3]
• 1908 – English borrows couture “fashionable dressmaking”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Sewing, the action or art of sewing: faire de la couture.^[9][11]
2. The making of clothes as a trade, especially of women's clothes, dressmaking: une maison de couture, la haute couture.^[9][11][1]
3. A seam, a row of stitches joining two pieces of cloth or leather.^[3][8][1]
4. (nautical) The seam between two planks of a ship, filled with tarred oakum.^[3][4]
5. (dated) A scar.^[2][1]
6. Sous toutes les coutures: from every angle, thoroughly.^[2][9]
7. Battre à plate couture: to defeat utterly.^[2][3]

Word family

• couturier
• couturière
• couturé
• couturer
• haute couture

Related words

• coudre²
• suture
• accoutrer
• Latin cōnsuō
• English couture

Usage notes

Old and Middle French also had couture “cultivated land, field”, a separate word from Latin cultūra, found in Paris names such as ⟨la Cousture Saint Martin⟩.^{[12][13][7][14]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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
4. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 1098a
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
12. ^ Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon
13. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
14. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 1504a