As a noun, it is a one-piece piece of clothing, usually worn by women or girls, that covers the body from the shoulders or chest down. As a verb, it means to put clothes on yourself or someone else, or to prepare something neatly or for a special purpose.
From Old French 'dresser' meaning 'to arrange, prepare, set straight', from Latin 'directus' meaning 'straight, direct'. It first meant 'to prepare or arrange', and only later specialized to clothing. The sense of arranging appearance led to the modern clothing meaning.
The word 'dress' once meant 'to arrange' in general—you could dress a table, a wound, or a room. Clothing is just one kind of arrangement, a way of organizing how your body appears in public. The word reminds us that getting dressed is a daily act of design.
‘Dress’ has historically been associated with women’s clothing in many cultures, and norms around dresses have been used to police women’s behavior and respectability. At the same time, clothing norms are changing, and dresses are worn across genders in various traditions.
Avoid assuming that dresses are only for women; when relevant, talk about ‘people who wear dresses’ rather than equating dresses with womanhood.
["clothing","outfit","garment"]
Women have used dress and fashion both as a tool of self-expression and as a means of challenging restrictive gender norms, from suffrage-era reform dress to contemporary professional attire.
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