couturier

Forms

couturier m (plural couturiers, feminine couturière)^[1] Old French cousturier; the spelling couturier is recorded by Richelet in 1680.^[2][3] The feminine is Old French costurere (about 1150) and cousturiere (about 1200).^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from French couture + -ier.^[2][1][4] Medieval Latin had costurarius “one whose trade is sewing” about 1115.^[2][5] The base noun goes back to Vulgar Latin *cōnsūtūra, from cōnsuō (“to sew together”).^[6][1]

Littré compares Old Occitan cordurier and Old Catalan costurer.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as cousturier in the Faits des Romains (1213–1214), meaning a man whose trade is sewing, a tailor.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In the old sense the word covered sewing trades in general;^[7] Littré quotes the valet couturier of the 13th-century Livre des métiers.^[7] Because tailors sat cross-legged at their work, the thigh muscle that lets the leg take that position was named muscle couturier about 1560.^[4][8][7] By the 19th century couturier “tailor” had aged and tailleur had replaced it.^[7]

The word spread widely in the 19th century for the person, at first a man, who creates designs and runs a fashion house (1863), alone or as grand couturier (1874), in connection with haute couture.^[5][2] The feminine couturière had taken that sense in 1854.^[2] In the French of Africa it is used where the French of Europe says tailleur.^[5] English took couturier in 1885 for a male dressmaker or fashion designer.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1115 – Medieval Latin costurarius is recorded in a Chartres cartulary.^[2]
• c. 1150 – The feminine costurere in Girart de Roussillon.^[2]
• 1213–1214 – Cousturier in the Faits des Romains.^[2]
• c. 1560 – Couturier names the sartorius muscle.^[4][8]
• 1680 – Richelet records the spelling couturier.^[3]
• 1854 – Couturière is used of a woman who designs and runs a fashion house.^[2]
• 1863 – Littré records the sense “head of a fashion house”.^[2][3]
• 1874 – Un grand couturier in Mallarmé.^[2][5]
• 1885 – English borrows the word.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fashion designer who runs a fashion house, creates designs and has them shown by models and made in his workshops: un grand couturier.^[8][2]
2. (dated) A man whose trade is sewing; a tailor.^[3][7]
3. (Africa) A tailor.^[5]
4. (anatomy) The sartorius muscle of the thigh, also muscle couturier as an adjective.^[8][3][7]

Related words

• couturière
• couture
• coudre²
• tailleur

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c d e f g Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com