vesture

See also: vēsture and vēsturē

English

Etymology

From Middle English vesture (noun) and vesturen (verb), from Anglo-Norman, from Old French vesteüre, from Vulgar Latin vestītūra (“clothing”), from Latin vestītus, perfect passive participle of vestiō (“to clothe”), from vestis (“garment”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɛst͡ʃə(ɹ)/, /ˈvɛstjʊə(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

vesture (plural vestures)

1. A covering of, or like, clothing.
   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 16”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     His broad-brim was placed beside him; his legs were stiffly crossed; his drab vesture was buttoned up to his chin; and spectacles on nose, he seemed absorbed in reading from a ponderous volume.

   • 1852, The Ark, and Odd Fellows' Western Magazine:

     It pencilled each flower with rich and variegated hues, and threw over its exuberant foliage a vesture of emerald green.

Verb

vesture (third-person singular simple present vestures, present participle vesturing, simple past and past participle vestured)

1. (archaic) To clothe.

Related terms

• invest
• vest
• vestibule
• vestment

Anagrams

• revestu, versute, vertues