endimancher

From en- +‎ dimanche (“Sunday”) +‎ -er.

• IPA^(key): /ɑ̃.di.mɑ̃.ʃe/

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endimancher

1. (pronominal) to dress up in one's Sunday best
   • 1847, Honoré de Balzac, translated by William Walton, Cousin Pons:

     Une heure après, la Cibot s’endimancha, partit en milord, au grand étonnement de Rémonencq et se promit de représenter dignement la femme de confiance des deux Casse-noisettes dans tous les pensionnats, chez toutes les personnes où se trouvaient les écolières des deux musiciens.

     An hour later the Cibot, in her Sunday best, departed in great state, to the amazement of Rémonencq, promising herself to represent, in a suitable manner, the confidential housekeeper of the two Nut-crackers in all the boarding-schools and to all the private pupils of the two musicians.

   • 1924, Emmanuel Bove, translated by Janet Louth, Mes Amis [My Friends]‎:

     J’ai deux complets : celui que je mets tous les jours et un autre qui a l’avantage d’être noir. J’hésitai à revêtir ce dernier ; je ne savais pas si M. Lacaze aimait mieux que j’eusse l’air pauvre ou bien que, pour lui, je me fusse endimanché.

     I have two suits: the one I wear every day, and another which has the advantage of being black. I hesitated to put on the latter; I did not know whether Monsieur Lacaze would prefer me to look poor or whether he would be glad I had dressed my best for him.

2. (transitive) to dress someone to look on their Sunday best
   • 1857, Alfred de Musset, “À mon Frère, revenant d’Italie [To My Brother, Returning From Italy]”, in Marie Agathe Clarke, transl., Poésies nouvelles, lines 73–78:

     Pauvre Ischia ! bien des gens n’ont vu / Tes jeunes filles que pied nu / Dans la poussière. / On les endimanche à prix d’or ; / Mais ton pur soleil brille encor / Sur leur misère.

     Poor Ischia! In thy every street / Thy maidens in their naked feet / Tread the soft dust. / Whether in rags or colored cloth, / To earn a coin they're nothing loth— / Find crust they must.

     (literally, “Poor Ischia! many people have seen your maidens only barefoot in the dust. One dresses them richly; but your pure sun still shines over their misery.”)

• désendimancher
• endimanchable
• endimanchement

• → English: endimanched
• → German: endimanchiert

• “endimancher”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.