Costume

How to spell costume

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce costume

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does costume mean?

1. nounA set of clothes worn to represent a character, period, or occasion, as in theatre or fancy dress.
2. verbTo dress a person in clothing for a role, performance, or occasion.

Costume in a sentence

• noun

  She rented a pirate costume for the office party.

• verb

  The wardrobe team had to costume forty dancers before the curtain rose.

• noun

  The theatre kept every costume from the original production in storage.

• verb

  The director chose to costume the cast in nineteenth century fashions.

Where does costume come from?

Language of origin: French

Costume arrived in English in the early 1700s from French, which had taken it from the Italian costume, a word that meant 'custom', 'fashion', or 'habitual practice'. Both the Italian and French words trace back to the Latin consuetudo, meaning 'custom' or 'habit', built on the verb consuescere, 'to grow accustomed to'. Originally costume referred to the established style of dress, manners, and setting appropriate to a particular time and place, and painters used it to mean getting the historical details of a scene correct. From that artistic sense it narrowed to mean a complete set of clothes worn for a role, a period, or a special occasion. Tellingly, costume and the plain English word 'custom' are ultimately the very same Latin word arriving by two different routes, which is a useful reminder that the spelling keeps the -ume ending rather than -ome.

How the word is built

• Latin con- (together)
• suet- (from suescere: to become accustomed)
• -ude / -ume (forming a noun of custom)