Tuxedo

How to spell tuxedo

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce tuxedo

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tuxedo mean?

1. nounA man's formal evening suit, especially the tailless dinner jacket worn with a bow tie.

Tuxedo in a sentence

• He rented a black tuxedo for the awards ceremony.

• The wedding invitation asked male guests to wear a tuxedo.

Where does tuxedo come from?

Language of origin: Other

Tuxedo takes its name from Tuxedo Park, a fashionable resort community in Orange County, New York, where wealthy New Yorkers gathered in the late nineteenth century. The tailless dinner jacket worn there in the 1880s became associated with the place, and by around 1889 Americans were calling the garment a tuxedo. The place name itself comes from an Algonquian (Lenape) word, often given as something like p'tuksit, which has been interpreted to mean 'round foot' or to refer to the wolf clan that once lived in the area. So a word for formal eveningwear is rooted in a Native American name for a wild animal, a surprising journey for a piece of clothing. The unusual spelling, with its single x doing the work of a 'ks' sound and the unexpected -edo ending, reflects this borrowed proper-noun origin rather than any familiar English pattern.

How the word is built

• From the place name Tuxedo Park; not built from productive English prefixes or suffixes, so it is best learned as a single unit (tux-
• -edo).