Where does the expression “dress up” come from? | EUROtoday
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LOn the eve of New Year’s Eve, what offers you a migraine isn’t a lot the surplus of foie gras or the enigma of the proper present, however moderately the frantic quest for the impeccable costume to have fun the New Year. Comment shine with out competing with the seasonal tree? You should be “on your 31”.
Except that this expression has nothing to do with the night of December 31. Its origin is way older, and – who is aware of? – maybe much more shocking than your final social gathering look. Why this quantity and why “go about it” with a lot care? This is an outdated expression, attested as early as 1867, whose origin continues to trigger linguists’ ink to circulate.
A thirties garment, luxurious cloth
One of probably the most enticing explanations dates again to the Middle Ages and invokes the “trentain”, a luxurious luxurious sheet product of thirty occasions 100 threads. This valuable cloth dressed those that needed to show their opulence or have fun an distinctive day. The thought appeals: “to put on” – perceive “to put on” – a thirties merchandise of clothes would have given start to the expression. But a doubt hovers amongst linguists: how a uncommon phrase, which virtually fell into disuse within the fifteenthe century, would it not have resurfaced in a preferred flip of the nineteenthe ? A monitor which, though silky, stays fragile.
ALSO READ Why do we are saying “being the joke turkey”? More pragmatic, one other speculation takes us to Prussia, the place troopers acquired a navy inspection go to seven occasions a yr… on the thirty first of the month, this further day that the calendar grants half the yr. The directions had been strict: clear the barracks till they shine and current your self in your most interesting apparel, impeccable underneath the scrutinizing eye of the officers.
In alternate, a bonus or further upkeep may very well be granted. This custom would have crossed borders due to Huguenot officers, who mastered the French language and popularized the expression. From there to our troopers borrowing their class from the Prussian regime, there is just one step.
“Get dressed in your 18” and “dress in your 36”
To Discover
Kangaroo of the day
Answer
However, these two hypotheses are severely missing in proof. What’s complicated is that we additionally say “put on your 36”, an expression which appears older than that of “31”. In 1783, we already discovered “to put on your 18”, which the linguist Alain Rey explains as a pun on the quantity 9 (two occasions 9)… And thirty-six, which is the same as 4 occasions 9, could be much more prestigious !
The quantity 9 would then have been tailored to the utmost variety of days in a month, i.e. thirty-one. Our Quebec cousins have stored the thirty-six. We can nonetheless hear them say “Y is always dressed in his 36, not a hair sticks out… a real gentleman!” » as Michel Tremblay writes within the play The Sisters-in-Law.
https://www.lepoint.fr/eureka/d-ou-vient-l-expression-se-mettre-sur-son-31–31-12-2024-2579002_4706.php