Draper

How to spell draper

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce draper

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does draper mean?

1. nounA retailer or dealer in cloth, fabric, and sewing materials.

Draper in a sentence

• The local draper sold her several yards of linen for the curtains.

• His great-grandfather worked as a draper on the high street for forty years.

Where does draper come from?

Language of origin: French

The word comes from the Old French drapier, meaning a dealer in cloth, which was built on drap, the Old French word for woven cloth or fabric. That noun traces back to the Late Latin drappus, also meaning cloth, a word whose ultimate roots are uncertain but which spread widely through the medieval textile trade. English took the term up in the 1300s, when the draper was a prominent and prosperous tradesman in towns built on the wool and cloth business. The same drap root still survives openly in the everyday word 'drape', meaning to hang cloth in folds, and that connection is a useful reminder that a draper deals in fabric. The spelling keeps the single 'p' of drap rather than doubling it, which is the small trap, since many agent nouns of this shape can tempt a doubled consonant.

How the word is built

• drap- (cloth, from Old French drap)
• -er (agent noun: one who deals in)