Synonyms for Clothes

Synonyms for Clothes Synonyms for Clothes Synonyms for Clothes By Mark Nichol Words that refer collectively to one’s clothes have an origin in the sense of equipment or preparation; here are a dozen words available as alternatives to clothes. Apparel, ultimately derived from the Latin verb apparare, meaning â€Å"prepare,† started out in English as a verb but then came to be associated with clothing (as well as a ship’s rigging); apparatus is related. The origin of attire is the French word atirier, meaning â€Å"equip† or â€Å"prepare†; it, too, began as a verb. Clothes comes from the Old English plural of cloth. (When this sense became rare, cloth acquired a new plural: cloths.) Costume, from the Latin word consuetudinem, meaning â€Å"custom† or â€Å"habit† (costume and custom are cognate), was later associated with one’s style of dress. It is now mostly associated with clothing worn by performers or partygoers. Dress, which originally meant â€Å"prepare,† derives ultimately from the Latin term directus, meaning â€Å"direct† or â€Å"straight,† and later became a noun as well as a verb. The French term garnement, from the noun garner, meaning â€Å"adorn† or â€Å"provide† (also the source of garnish) was adopted into English as garment. Habiliments, from the Old French term abiller, meaning â€Å"equip† or â€Å"prepare,† originally referred to weaponry but came to pertain to characteristic attire, such as an outfit worn to identify a person’s occupation or tacitly prescribed clothing that is appropriate for a specific occasion, such as a formal-dress event. (Related words are able and ability, billet, habit, and habilitate.) Outfit originally meant to prepare and supply a sea expedition, then later became a noun referring to equipment and items required for such an undertaking by sea or by land and, by extension, to clothing. (It now also informally refers to a group of people.) The archaic word raiment derives from an Old French word areement, the noun form of the term areer, the origin of the English verb (and noun) array. Vestments comes ultimately from the Latin verb vestire, meaning â€Å"clothe,† by way of Old French; it’s related to vest. (Vestibule is unrelated, though the financial sense of vest, and the root word in invest and divest, are cognate, deriving from a sense of vestire that pertains to surrounding oneself with something figuratively as if putting on clothes.) Wardrobe, from the Old French word garderobe (and the dialectical variant warderobe), originally referred to a dressing room, then to one’s collection of clothing and later to a piece of furniture for storing clothing; the senses derive from the French warder, meaning â€Å"guard† or â€Å"keep,† and robe, which was directly borrowed into English to refer to a garment. The French form of the word has been used in English but is rare. (The connection between g and w in French words used in English is also seen, for example, in guarantee/warranty and Guillaume/William.) Wear, from an Old English term meaning â€Å"clothe† or â€Å"cover up† (and related to the ward in wardrobe), is generally used in combination to refer to a particular type of clothing, as in the terms sportswear and underwear. Slang terms for clothing include duds, garb, get-up, rags, rig, threads, and togs. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Apply to, Apply for, and Apply with8 Proofreading Tips And TechniquesRite, Write, Right, Wright

Extended Metaphor in Literature

Extended Metaphor in Literature An extended metaphor is a common literary device used as a comparison between two, unlike things that are commonly used in descriptive prose or poetry. Sometimes, it is just a sentence or two, or sometimes it can be even longer, lasting a paragraph or more. This literary term is also known as a conceit or a mega-metaphor. An extended metaphor is sometimes confused with allegory. The various elements or  images  in an extended metaphor may fit together or complement one another in different ways. Allegory Versus Extended Metaphor Allegory is often described as an extended metaphor, but this description only works if extended refers to the linguistic expression while metaphor refers to the conceptual structure. For example, Peter Crisp, English professor for the Chinese University of Hong Kong, claims that Extended metaphor... is different from allegory because it contains language that relates directly to both the  source and target. Literary Construct Only Extended metaphors  are a literary construct as opposed to an ordinary-language  metaphor. Extended metaphors are used consciously and sustained throughout a text or discourse. Unlike ordinary-language metaphors, they are not a one-off use of a description usually made out of necessity to get a point across. According to some language experts, extended metaphors are the exclusive property of literary texts, although this is not conclusive because of the use of  sustained metaphors in advertising. Examples of Extended Metaphors The best way to understand the concept of an extended metaphor is to see it in use. Authors and poets from all over the world, from all genres, and many time periods, have used or likely will use an extended metaphor in one way or another. Dean Koontz, Seize the NightBobby Holloway says my imagination is a three-hundred-ring circus. Currently, I was in ring two hundred and ninety-nine, with elephants dancing and clowns cartwheeling and tigers leaping through rings of fire. The time had come to step back, leave the main tent, go buy some popcorn and a Coke, bliss out, cool down.Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemans UnionIt never takes longer than a few minutes, when they get together, for everyone to revert to the state of nature, like a party marooned by a shipwreck. That’s what a family is. Also the storm at sea, the ship, and the unknown shore. And the hats and the whiskey stills that you make out of bamboo and coconuts. And the fire that you light to keep away the beasts.Emily Dickinson, Hope Is the Thing With FeathersHope is the thing with feathersThat perches in the soul,And sings the tune- without the words,And never stops at all,And sweetest in the gale is heard;And sore must be the stormThat could abash the little birdThat kept so many warm.Ive heard it in the chillest land,And on the strangest sea;Yet, never, in extremity,It asked a crumb of me. Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin DroodWhosoever has observed that sedate and clerical bird, the rook, may perhaps have noticed that when he wings his way homeward towards nightfall, in a sedate and clerical company, two rooks will suddenly detach themselves from the rest, will retrace their flight for some distance, and will there poise and linger; conveying to mere men the fancy that it is of some occult importance to the body politic, that this artful couple should pretend to have renounced connection with it.Similarly, service being over in the old Cathedral with the square tower, and the choir scuffling out again, and divers venerable persons of rook-like aspect dispersing, two of these latter retrace their steps, and walk together in the echoing Close.Henry James, The AmbassadorsUnless she hid herself altogether she could show but as one of these, an illustration of his domiciled and indeed of his confirmed condition. And the consciousness of all this in her charming eyes w as so clear and fine that as she thus publicly drew him into her boat she produced in him such a silent agitation as he was not to fail afterwards to denounce as pusillanimous. Ah dont be so charming to me!- for it makes us intimate, and after all what is between us when Ive been so tremendously on my guard and have seen you but half a dozen times? He recognized once more the perverse law that so inveterately governed his poor personal aspects: it would be exactly like the way things always turned out for him that he should affect Mrs. Pocock and Waymarsh as launched in a relation in which he had really never been launched at all. They were at this very moment- they could only be- attributing to him the full license of it, and all by the operation of her own tone with him; whereas his sole license had been to cling with intensity to the brink, not to dip so much as a toe into the flood. But the flicker of his fear on this occasion was not, as may be added, to repeat itself; it spran g up, for its moment, only to die down and then go out forever. To meet his fellow visitors invocation and, with Sarahs brilliant eyes on him, answer, was quite sufficiently to step into her boat. During the rest of the time her visit lasted he felt himself proceed to each of the proper offices, successively, for helping to keep the adventurous skiff afloat. It rocked beneath him, but he settled himself in his place. He took up an oar and, since he was to have the credit of pulling, pulled. Will Ferrell (Actor/Comedian), Commencement Address at Harvard University in 2003I graduated from the University of Life. All right? I received a degree from the School of Hard Knocks. And our colors were black and blue, baby. I had office hours with the Dean of Bloody Noses. All right? I borrowed my class notes from Professor Knuckle Sandwich and his teaching assistant, Ms. Fat Lip Thon Nyun. That’s the kind of school I went to for real, okay?