tailor (English)

Where does "tailor" come from?

The English noun 'tailor' was inherited from Middle English 'taillour'[1], which was borrowed from Anglo-Norman 'taillour'[1][4]. This traces back to Old French 'tailleor', an agent noun from 'taillier'[1], which meant to cut and derived from the Late Latin verb 'tāliō'[1][5]. That Late Latin verb was itself formed from the classical Latin noun 'tālea', referring to a plant cutting[1][2][5].

Open questions

The deeper origin of Latin 'tālea' is unclear, with scholars debating whether it derives from a proposed Proto-Indo-European root meaning to grow or represents a derivative of the Latin word for ankle. [3]

Full etymology tree

tailor (English), 'A person who makes, repairs, or alters clothes professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.'
- inherited taillour (Middle English), 'tailor'
  - borrowed taillour (Old French), 'tailor (one who creates or alters clothing)'
    - derived tailleor (Old French)
      - derived taillier (Old French), 'to cut'
        derived talio (Latin), 'to cut'
        affix talea (Latin), 'A long or slender piece of wood or metal; rod, stick, stake, bar.'
        suffix -o (Latin), 'suffixed to nouns or adjectives. Originally a-stem nouns. Later extended to nouns with other stems. Forms regular first-conjugation verbs'

Ancestors

taillour (Middle English)
talio (Latin)
talea (Latin)

Cognates and doublets

tailleur (English)

Descendants and derived words

merchant tailor (English)
tailorbird (English)
tailoress (English)
tailor-fashion (English)
tailor-made (English)
tailor-made (English)
tailor-made (English)
tailor make (English)
tailor-make (English)
tailor's chalk (English)
tailor's dummy (English)
tailor's goose (English)

Sources

Updated October 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris