costume

Borrowed from French costume, from Italian costume, from Latin consuētūdō (“custom, habit”). Doublet of consuetude and custom.

Verb circa 1802, perhaps modelled on French costumer.^[1]

• (UK, noun, verb) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒs.tjuːm/, /ˈkɒs.t͡ʃuːm/
• (General American, noun) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑsˌt(j)um/, /ˈkɑsˌt͡ʃum/, /ˈkɑs.tʊm/, /ˈkɑs.təm/
• (General American, verb) IPA^(key): /kɑsˈt(j)um/, /kɑsˈt͡ʃum/, /ˈkɑsˌt(j)um/, /ˈkɑsˌt͡ʃum/, /ˈkɑs.tʊm/, /ˈkɑs.təm/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: (noun, verb) -ɒstum, -ɒstjum, -ɒstʃum, -ɒstʊm, -ɒstəm, (verb) -uːm

costume (countable and uncountable, plural costumes)

1. A style of dress, including garments, accessories and hairstyle, especially as characteristic of a particular country, period or people.
   • 2019, Krissy Aguilar, “Liza Soberano Apologizes for Comments on ‘Black Face’”, in Philippine Daily Inquirer:

     The apology came after a netizen claimed Soberano was supposedly doing a black face, but the latter said, in defense, it was just a “costume.”

2. An outfit or a disguise worn as fancy dress etc.

   We wore gorilla costumes to the party.

3. A set of clothes appropriate for a particular occasion or season.

   The bride wore a grey going-away costume.

4. A swimming costume.
   • 1966, Bruce Brown, director, The Endless Summer:

     They call their bathing suits down there "costumes."

• Despite the meaning "traditional clothes," costume may be considered pejorative by some cultures as a reference to their own traditional dress, owing to interference from the sense "fancy dress, disguise" (such as if their traditional dress has often been appropriated by others as fancy dress). For example, many Indigenous North Americans disfavour the term costume to refer to their traditional and ritual garments and prefer the term regalia.

• getup
• outfit

• customary
• custom

• uniform

costume (third-person singular simple present costumes, present participle costuming, simple past and past participle costumed)

1. To dress or adorn with a costume or appropriate garb.
   • 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter XVIII, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC:

     Seated on the carpet, by the side of this basin, was seen Mr. Rochester, costumed in shawls, with a turban on his head. His dark eyes and swarthy skin and Paynim features suited the costume exactly. He looked the very model of an Eastern emir, an agent or a victim of the bowstring.

   • 1942 March, “Notes and News: Monument to a Stillborn Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 88:

     "The Chengtu revolutionaries were fantastically colourful in the Szechwanese manner—they costumed themselves as heroes of the stage and their energies were chiefly occupied in tying ropes across the main streets so that when Imperial officials rode by in their litters they would have to get down and crawl under, losing face.

• recostume

• “costume”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “costume”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• custome

• custume (Western Asturias)

PIE word
*ḱóm

PIE word
*swé

From Old Leonese custume, costume (11th c., Fueru de Lleón); inherited from Latin consuētūdinem.

• IPA^(key): /kosˈtume/ [kos̪ˈt̪u.me]
• Rhymes: -ume
• Syllabification: cos‧tu‧me

costume f (plural costumes)

1. custom, tradition

   Synonyms: vezu, zuna, dimisu

   • 1887, Xosé Caveda, La Batalla de Covadonga‎^[1]:

     " Otru imperiu aquí fundemos; / Con elli la llíbertá, / Les costumes y los fueros

     May we found another empire here / With it the libery / The customs and the laws

PIE word
*ḱóm

PIE word
*swé

Borrowed from Italian costume, from Latin cōnsuētūdinem (“custom, habit”). Doublet of consuétude and coutume.

• IPA^(key): /kɔs.tym/

• Audio:

  (file)

costume m (plural costumes)

1. a style of dress characteristic of a particular country, period or people
2. an outfit or a disguise worn as fancy dress
3. a set of clothes appropriate for a particular occasion or task
4. a suit worn by a man

• coutume

• → German: Kostüm
  • → Estonian: kostüüm
• → English: costume
• → Romanian: costum
• → Russian: костю́м (kostjúm)
  • → Azerbaijani: kostyum
  • → Armenian: կոստյում (kostyum)
  • → Georgian: კოსტიუმი (ḳosṭiumi)
  • → Kazakh: костюм (kostüm)
  • → Kyrgyz: костюм (kostyum)
  • → Latvian: kostīms
  • → Lithuanian: kostiumas
  • → Mongolian: костюм (kostjüm)
  • → Turkmen: kostýum
  • → Uyghur: كاستۇم (kastum)
  • → Uzbek: kostyum
  • → Yakut: көстүүм (köstüüm)
• → Swedish: kostym
• → Turkish: kostüm

costume

1. inflection of costumer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “costume”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• custume

PIE word
*ḱóm

PIE word
*swé

From Old Galician-Portuguese costume, custume (13th c., Cantigas de Santa Maria); inherited from Latin consuētūdinem.

• IPA^(key): /kosˈtume/ [kos̺ˈt̪u.mɪ]
• Rhymes: -ume
• Hyphenation: cos‧tu‧me

costume m (plural costumes)

1. custom; tradition (traditional practice or behavior)

   Synonym: tradición

2. custom; habit (action done on a regular basis)

   Synonyms: hábito, uso

   • 1326, A. López Ferreiro, editor, Fueros municipales de Santiago y de su tierra, Madrid: Ediciones Castilla, page 398:

     mandamos que enna friigesía que ouuer XV friigeses ou mays poucos, se non tomaren lobo ou loba ou camada delles, ou non correren cada domaa con elles sen enganno segundo que e de custume des o primeyro sabado de quaresma ata dia de Sam Joham de Juyo, ou non fezeren o ffogio, que pagen X mrs.

     We order that in the parish that has 15 parishioners or more, if they don't catch a wolf or litter of them, or if they don't raid them weekly without trickery, as it is used, since the first Saturday of Lent till Saint John's day in June, or if they don't build the pit, then they shall pay 10 mrs.

3. (law) custom (long-established practice, considered as unwritten law)
   • 1389, Enrique Cal Pardo, editor, Colección diplomática medieval do arquivo da catedral de Mondoñedo, Santiago: Consello da Cultura Galega, page 206:

     que ouuo senpre de custume de non meter vinno de fora parte en esta vila et saluo que os visinnos da villa ouueren de sua lauoria et sua marra

     because it was the custom of this town not to introduce wine from the outside, except if the neighbours needed it and lacked it

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “costume”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “costume”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “costume”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “costume”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “costume”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

PIE word
*ḱóm

PIE word
*swé

Inherited from Latin consuētūdinem. Doublet of consuetudine, which was borrowed.

• IPA^(key): /kosˈtu.me/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ume
• Hyphenation: co‧stù‧me

costume m (plural costumi)

1. a custom, habit

   Synonyms: usanza, uso, abitudine

2. a costume
3. a swimsuit

   Synonym: costume da bagno

• → French: costume (see there for further descendants)

• mescuto

costume oblique singular, m (oblique plural costumes, nominative singular costumes, nominative plural costume)

1. alternative form of coustume
   • c. 1200, author unknown, Aucassin et Nicolette:

     il n'est mie costume que nos entrocions li uns l'autre.

     it is not our habit to kill each other.

• Hyphenation: cos‧tu‧me

PIE word
*ḱóm

PIE word
*swé

Inherited from Latin consuētūdinem.

• custume (obsolete, now eye dialect)

costume m (plural costumes)

1. custom; tradition (traditional practice or behavior)

   Synonym: tradição

   É costume trazer um pinheiro para dentro de casa durante o Natal.

   It's a tradition to bring a pine tree inside the house during Christmas.

2. custom; habit (common or frequently repeated behavior)

   Synonym: hábito

   Temos o costume de comer pão toda manhã.

   We have the habit of eating bread every morning.

   • 1899, Machado de Assis, Dom Casmurro‎^[2], Obliqpress, published 2013:

     Posto que nascido na roça (donde vim com dois anos) e apesar dos costumes do tempo, eu não sabia montar, e tinha medo ao cavalo.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

3. (law) custom (long-established practice, considered as unwritten law)
4. outfit; costume (a set of clothes appropriate for a particular activity)

   Synonym: traje

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

costume

1. inflection of costumar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• “costume”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2025
• “costume”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025
• “costume”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025
• “costume”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2025

• IPA^(key): /kos.ˈtu.me/

costume n pl

1. plural of costum