Tailor

How to spell tailor

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce tailor

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tailor mean?

1. nounA person who makes, alters, or repairs fitted clothing, especially suits.
2. verbTo make or adapt something so that it fits a particular person, need, or purpose.

Tailor in a sentence

• noun

  The tailor measured his shoulders before cutting the cloth.

• verb

  The consultant will tailor the training course to suit each department.

• noun

  She took the trousers to a tailor to have them shortened.

• verb

  Good salespeople tailor their pitch to the customer in front of them.

Where does tailor come from?

Language of origin: French

The word comes from the Old French tailleor, meaning 'a cutter', built on the verb taillier, 'to cut', which itself descends from the Late Latin taliare, 'to split or cut'. The connection is that the craftsman's defining skill was cutting cloth into the right shapes before stitching them together, so the cutter became the maker of clothes. English borrowed the word in the 1200s, and over time the noun gave rise to a verb meaning 'to make or adapt to fit', which broadened into the modern figurative sense of customising anything to a purpose. The same taillier root survives in 'detail' (literally something cut into small pieces) and in the 'tail-' of words about cutting. Remembering that a tailor cuts cloth helps fix the spelling, since the ending is -or, the agent suffix, not the more familiar -er.

How the word is built

• tail- (from Old French taillier: to cut)
• -or (agent/noun suffix)