chatoyant

Pronounced: shuh-TOY-uhnt, adj/noun

Notes: I had no idea of the definition until I read the background; then I realized I should have had a pretty good guess.

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Yesterday’s word

The word habiliment means “the clothes worn by those of a certain profession”

First usage

This word goes back to the late 1300s or early 1400s

Background / Comments

There are no longer many professions that can be told by their clothing these days: priests have their special collar, and nuns often have their habit. There is typical clothing (habiliment) for lumberjacks. How many professions have a distinct kind of clothing? Our word comes from the Middle English word (h)abylement, which came from the French word habillement, which is from habiller abillier (“to trim a log”, and thus to prepare or to dress).