the.com/frock
a word so old it dressed monks before it ever dressed debutantes
means A dress, especially a girl's or woman's frock, or historically a loose outer garment such as a monk's habit or a workman's smock.
from From Old French 'froc,' meaning a monk's robe, which passed into Middle English. The deeper root is uncertain — it may come from Frankish or another Germanic source, possibly related to words for a coat or covering. For centuries 'frock' meant the gown of a monk or friar (giving us 'defrock,' to strip a cleric of office), and only later did it loosen into the everyday dress and the workman's 'frock coat.'
- holy roots
- originally meant a monk's robe, not a gown
- the verb
- defrock strips clergy of their priestly office
- frock coat
- defined respectable Victorian men for decades
- smock cousin
- shares ancestry with loose working garments
- global word
- in Australia and India still means dress
little black dress — coco chanel's iconic 1926 design that revolutionized women's fashion
white wedding dress — princess diana's 1981 gown by emanuel with 25-foot train, watched by 750 million
pink gown met gala — marilyn monroe's 1962 dress by jean louis, worn to sing happy birthday to jfk