Apparel

How to spell apparel

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce apparel

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does apparel mean?

1. nounClothing, especially when considered as a category of goods or worn for a particular purpose.

Apparel in a sentence

• The store has a whole floor devoted to outdoor apparel.

• The company expanded from footwear into sports apparel.

Where does apparel come from?

Language of origin: French

Apparel travelled into English in the early 1300s from the Old French verb 'apareillier', which meant 'to prepare, fit out, or equip'. That French verb grew from an assumed Vulgar Latin 'appariculare', based on the Latin 'apparare', 'to make ready', which in turn combines 'ad', meaning 'to' or 'towards', with 'parare', 'to prepare'. Underlying it all is the Latin 'par', meaning 'equal' or 'matching', so the earliest sense leaned on the idea of fitting things together suitably. In English the noun quickly settled into the specific meaning of clothing and outward dress, the garments that 'fit out' a person. The same 'parare' root sits inside familiar words like 'prepare' and 'repair', and the doubled p plus the soft, unstressed ending are exactly what trip writers up today.

How the word is built

• ap- (from Latin ad-: to, towards)
• par (equal, from Latin par)
• -el (noun/verb suffix from Old French)