costume

Meanings

Noun

• A style of dress, including garments, accessories and hairstyle, especially as characteristic of a particular country, period or people.
• An outfit or a disguise worn as fancy dress etc.
• A set of clothes appropriate for a particular occasion or season.

Verb

• To dress or adorn with a costume or appropriate garb.

Related

Similar words

• getup
• outfit

Origin

• From Middle English costume, custume, from Old French costume, custume, from Italian costume, from a Vulgar Latin or *costūmen, from Latin cōnsuētūdinem, accusative singular of cōnsuētūdō, from cōnsuēscō, from con- + suēscō. First element con- derives from cum, from Old Latin com, from Proto-Italic *kom, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm ("with, along"). Second element suēscō is from Proto-Indo-European *swe-dʰh₁-sk-, from *swé + *dʰeh₁-; related to Latin suus ("one's own, his own"). consuetude and custom, which shares most of this etymology.
• Verb circa 1823.