dressdress

Dress comes from Middle English dressen ‘to arrange, put in order’, from Late Latin *dīrēctiāre ‘to guide, direct’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- ‘to straighten’.

1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₃reǵ-¹‘to straighten’reconstructed
2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₃réǵeti¹‘to be straightening’reconstructed
3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*regō¹reconstructed
4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEregō¹‘to rule’
5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdīrigō²‘to lay straight’
6. Classical Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdīrēctus³‘laid straight’
7. Late Latinc. 200–600 CE*dīrēctiāre³‘to guide’reconstructed
8. Old Frenchc. 842–1400dresser³
9. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500dressen³‘to arrange’
10. Englishearliest quotation c. 1580dress³

1. ¹ Wiktionary, Latin dirigo
2. ² Wiktionary, Latin directus
3. ³ Wiktionary, English dress
4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1580, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., (please specify the folio): “[A]ll the men there shoulde dresse themselves like the…”.