English
haute couture
Haute couture comes from French haute couture ‘haute couture, high fashion’.
- Frenchc. 1600–presenthaute couture‘haute couture, high fashion’
- Englishearliest quotation 2018same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Frenchc. 1600–presenthaute couture‘haute couture, high fashion’
- Englishearliest quotation 2018same form
Earliest quotation: 2018, Vanessa Friedman, Why We Cover High Fashion: “But there are, unquestionably, parts of the clothes conversation…”
A compound of haute ‘high, elegant’ + couture ‘sewing’
Proto-Indo-European *syewH- ‘to sew’
Proto-Indo-European *syuHyéti
Proto-Italic *sūō ‘to sew, stitch’
Latin suō ‘to sew, stitch’
Latin cōnsuō ‘to sew together, sew up, stitch, join’
Latin cōnsūtus ‘sewn or stitched together’
Vulgar Latin *cōnsutūra
Old French costure
French couture ‘sewing’
Every English word from French haute couture
Today it means
noun High fashion as produced in Paris and imitated in other fashion capitals such as New York, London, and Milan.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / French haute couture / haute couture