costume (French)

Where does "costume" come from?

The word 'costume' entered French as a borrowing from Italian 'costume'[1]. The Italian term descends from the Latin accusative form 'cōnsuētūdinem', meaning 'custom' or 'habit'[1][2]. This Latin noun is built from 'cōnsuēscō', meaning 'to accustom' or 'habituate', combining the prefix 'con-' with 'suēscō'[3]. Ultimately, the ancestry traces back through Proto-Italic to Proto-Indo-European roots, including '*ḱóm' meaning 'with' and '*swé' meaning 'self'[4]. It is a doublet of the French words 'consuétude' and 'coutume'[1].

Open questions

• The Proto-Indo-European root '*ḱóm' may derive from the deictic particle '*ḱe'. [7]

Full etymology tree

• costume (French), 'a style of dress characteristic of a particular country, period or people'
  • borrowed costume (Italian), 'a custom, habit'
    • inherited consuetudinem (Latin), 'accusative singular of cōnsuētūdō'
      • derived consuesco (Latin), 'to accustom, inure or habituate, tend to'
        • prefix con- (Latin), 'Used in compounds to indicate a being or bringing together of several objects'
          • inherited cum (Latin), 'with, along with'
            • inherited com (Latin), 'Old Latin form of cum'
              • inherited *kom (Proto-Italic), 'with, along, at'
                • inherited *ḱóm (Proto-Indo-European), 'beside, near, by, with'
                  • derived *ḱe (Proto-Indo-European), 'Deictic particle, here'
        • derived suesco (Latin), 'to become used or accustomed to'
          • inherited *swe-dʰh₁-sḱ- (Proto-Indo-European)
            • derived *swé (Proto-Indo-European), 'self (reflexive pronoun)'
            • derived *dʰeh₁- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to do'
      • suffix -tudo (Latin), '-itude, -ness; used to form abstract nouns indicating a condition or state.'

Ancestors

• *dʰeh₁- (Proto-Indo-European)
• costume (Italian)
• consuetudo (Latin)

Cognates and doublets

• consuétude (French)
• coutume (French)

Descendants and derived words

• costume (English)
• costume (English)
• costume de bain (French)
• costume trois pièces (French)
• Costüm (German)
• Costüme (German)
• Kostüm (German)
• costum (Romanian)
• kostym (Swedish)
• kostüm (Turkish)

Sources

1. costume (French) - Wiktionary
2. costume (Italian) - Wiktionary
3. consuetudo (Latin) - Wiktionary
4. consuesco (Latin) - Wiktionary
5. suesco (Latin) - Wiktionary
6. kom (Proto-Italic) - Wiktionary
7. ḱóm (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary
8. swé (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary

Updated September 2026

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