Question

accoutrement noun Accoutrement and its relative accoutre, a verb meaning "to provide with equipment or furnishings" or "to outfit," have been appearing in English texts since the 16th century. Today both words have variant spellings—accouterment and accouter. Their French ancestor, accoutrer, descends from an Old French word meaning "seam" and ultimately traces to the Latin word consuere, meaning "to sew together." You probably won't be too surprised to learn that consuere is also an ancestor of couture, a word referring to the business of making fashionable clothes, as well as to the clothes themselves. 1 a : equipment, trappings; specifically : a soldier's outfit usually not including clothes and weapons — usually used in pluralb : an accessory item of clothing or equipment — usually used in plural2 : an identifying and often superficial characteristic or device — usually used in plural

Accepted Answer

August 27, 2017 uh-KOO-truh-munt The little closet was cluttered with belts and scarves and other accoutrements of use to a fashion-conscious teenager."Tour a contemporary American college campus and the guide will apologize for anything without the accoutrements of a yuppie condo. Stainless steel appliances and granite countertops became necessary to learning linear algebra while I wasn't looking." — Elizabeth Lewis Pardoe, Inside Higher Ed (insidehighered.com), 23 July 2017

Word	accoutrement
Date	August 27, 2017
Type	noun
Syllables	uh-KOO-truh-munt
Etymology	Accoutrement and its relative accoutre, a verb meaning "to provide with equipment or furnishings" or "to outfit," have been appearing in English texts since the 16th century. Today both words have variant spellings—accouterment and accouter. Their French ancestor, accoutrer, descends from an Old French word meaning "seam" and ultimately traces to the Latin word consuere, meaning "to sew together." You probably won't be too surprised to learn that consuere is also an ancestor of couture, a word referring to the business of making fashionable clothes, as well as to the clothes themselves.
Examples	The little closet was cluttered with belts and scarves and other accoutrements of use to a fashion-conscious teenager. "Tour a contemporary American college campus and the guide will apologize for anything without the accoutrements of a yuppie condo. Stainless steel appliances and granite countertops became necessary to learning linear algebra while I wasn't looking." — Elizabeth Lewis Pardoe, Inside Higher Ed (insidehighered.com), 23 July 2017
Definition	1 a : equipment, trappings; specifically : a soldier's outfit usually not including clothes and weapons — usually used in plural b : an accessory item of clothing or equipment — usually used in plural 2 : an identifying and often superficial characteristic or device — usually used in plural

Meaning Word Plural Accoutrement Equipment French Clothes August