accouter

English

Alternative forms

• accoutre (Commonwealth)

Etymology

From Middle French accoutrer, from Old French acoustrer, from Vulgar Latin acconsūtūrāre (“to equip with clothes”), from Latin ad (“to”) + consūtūra (“sewing, clothes”), from Latin cōnsuō (“to sew together”), from Latin con- (“together”) + suō (“to sew”), first attested in the 1590s.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /əˈku tɚ/

  • Audio (Southern England)

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Verb

accouter (third-person singular simple present accouters, present participle accoutering, simple past and past participle accoutered)

1. (transitive) To furnish with dress or equipments, especially those for military service

   Synonyms: equip, attire, array; see also Thesaurus:clothe

   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 177, column 1:

     […] Ile hold thee any wager / When we are both accoutered like yong men, / Ile proue the prettier fellow of the two, […]

   • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 110, column 2:

     Vpon the word, / Accoutred as I was, I plunged in,

   • 1693, John Dryden, “The Third Satire of Perseus”, in Walter Scott, editor, The works of John Dryden, volume 13, published 1808, page 235:

     For this, in rags accoutered, are they seen, / And made the may-game of the public spleen?

   • 1814, William Wordsworth, “The Solitary”, in The Excursion:

     Both while he trod the earth in humblest guise / Accoutred with his burthen and his staff;

   • 2022, Jennifer Egan, “What the Forest Remembers”, in The Candy House:

     There is a leader—there is usually a leader when men leave their established perimeters—and today it is Quinn Davies, a tanned, open-faced man accoutered with artifacts of a Native American ancestry he wishes he possessed.

Derived terms

Related terms

• accouterment

Translations

References

Further reading

• “accoutre”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• accoutre, cocurate

Norman

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

accouter

1. (Jersey, reflexive, s'accouter) to lean upon one's elbows