Forms: see below. [ME. a. AF. taillour = OF. tailleor, -eur (oblique case of tailler(r)e); in mod.F. tailleur = Pr. talador (nom. talaire), Cat. tallador, Sp. tallador engraver, tajador cutter, It. tagliatore cutter:—late L. or Com. Romanic tāliātōr-em (nom. tāliātor) cutter, agent-n. from tāliāre to cut: see TAIL v.2 In Fr. the word had, and still has, the general sense of cutter, hewer, sculptor (tailleur de pierre, de bois, de cuir, d’images, etc.), but already in the 13th c. was used absolutely for tailleur d’habits, de robes, med.L. tāliātor vestium, robārum, cutter out or fashioner of clothes, tailor. The latter use is found in Eng. from the 14th c., the general sense ‘cutter’ being rare and doubtful: cf. 1297, c. 1412, in sense 1.]
A. Illustration of Forms.
α. 3 [taylur], tailor, 4–5 taillour, 4–7 taylour, 4–9 taylor, 5 taylere, tayller, 5–7 tayler, tailour, 6– tailor.
[1296. in Fenland N. & Q. (1905), July, 210. Dilecto nobis in Xpo Ricardo de Masham dicto le Taylur.]
1297. Tailor [see B. 1].
1318–19. in Trans. Shropsh. Arch. Soc., Ser. III. III. 54. Ricardus le taylor de Luytel Shrowardyn.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. XI. 181. Trewe tiliers on erþe taillours [v.r. taliour] & souteris.
14[?]. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 629/1. Taylere, scissor.
1484. Caxton, Fables of Alfonce, xiii. A tayller … as good a workman of his craft, as ony … at that tyme in alle the world.
1573–80. Baret, Alv., T 10. A Tailour, sutor vestiarius. [See also B. 1.]
β. chiefly north. dial. and Sc. 4–5 taliour, 5 talȝer, -ȝour, -yowr, 5–6 tailȝour, taylȝor, -your, -eȝour, taill-, tayllyour, 6 talȝear, -yeor, tailȝeour, -eȝour, -yeour, -yeur, telȝ(e)our, -yeour, 9 dial. taylior, tenylear.
1415. in York Myst., Introd. 26. Taillyoures.
c. 1425. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 650/20. Hic sissor, tayleȝour.
14[?]. Nom., ibid., 685/25. Hic sissor, a taylȝor.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 486/1. Talyowre, scissor.
1442. Aberdeen Regr. (1844), I. 9. The talȝoures sal fynd [etc.].
1474. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 24. To a tailȝour that makis the Kingis hos.
1483. Surtees Misc. (1888), 28. On Breyerton, talȝer.
1483. Cath. Angl., 377/1. A Taylyour (A. Taylȝore), sartor, scissor.
c. 1500. Songs Costume (Percy Soc.), 62. Tailyeouris and sowtaris, blist be ye.
1530. Palsgr., 279/1. Tayllyour, cousturier.
1549. Compl. Scot., xvii. 150. Thy father vas ane mecanyc tailȝour.
a. 1568. Satir. Poems Reform., xlvi. 64. Ane nobill telȝeour in this toun. Ibid. (1573), xxxix. 202. Thay socht na taileȝours for to busc thair breikis.
1580. J. Hay, Cert. Demandes, vii., in Cath. Tractates (S.T.S.), 37. Tailyeours, skinnars and wther artisans.
1583. Leg. Bp. St. Androis, 567. He causit an talyeor turne it.
B. Signification.
1. ‘One whose business is to make clothes’ (J.); a maker of the outer garments of men, also sometimes those of women, esp. riding-habits, walking costumes, etc. See also MERCHANT-TAILOR.
(Although historically the tailor is the cutter, in the trade the ‘tailor’ is the man who sews or makes up what the ‘cutter’ has shaped.)
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 6391. A robe he let him ssape uerst of blod red scarlet þere Þe ssarpe stones bi þe stret is tailors were … Þe tailors corue so moni peces uor is robe ne ssolde powȝe.
c. 1412. Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 472. The taillours … moot heer-after soone Shape in þe feeld.
1466. Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.), 354. Herry Galle taylour,… axsethe for makenge of a longe gowne of pewke, ij. s.
1504. Wriothesley, Chron. (Camden), I. 5. This yeare the Taylors sued to the Kinge to be called Marchant taylors.
1530. Palsgr., 68. A tayllours wyfe or a woman tayllyour.
1595. Shaks., John, IV. ii. 195. I saw a Smith … With open mouth swallowing a Taylors newes. Ibid. (1597), 2 Hen. IV., III. ii. 164. Shal. What Trade art thou Feeble? Feeble. A Womans Taylor sir…. Fal. … But if he had beene a mans Taylor, he would haue prick’d you.
1611. Rich, Honest. Age (Percy Soc.), 34. I doe see the wisedome of women to be still ouerreached by Taylers, that can euery day induce them to as many new fangled fashions as they please to inuent.
1663. Pepys, Diary, 25 May. Into the Coach again, and taking with me my wife’s taylor.
1704. J. Pitts, Acc. Mohammetans, iii. (1738), 21. They all sit down cross-legg’d, as Taylors do.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 123, ¶ 5. I … sent for my taylor; ordered a suit … and … staid at home till it was made.
a. 1774. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 416. Our London company of tailors have a better title to the dignity of merchant by their magnificent hall.
1845. G. P. R. James, A. Neil, II. i. Did you ever see a tailor cut out a coat?
b. In proverbial and allusive phrases; often implying disparagement and ridicule.
1605. Shaks., Lear, II. ii. 60. Kent. A Taylor made thee. Cor. Thou art a strange fellow, a Taylor make a man?
1607. Dekker, Northward Hoe, II. i. They say three Taylors go to the making vp of a man, but Ime sure I had foure Taylors and a halfe went to the making of me thus.
1625. B. Jonson, Staple of N., I. i. Believe it, sir, That clothes do much upon the wit,… and thence comes your proverb, The tailor makes the man.
1651. Cleveland, Poems, 23. Like to nine Taylors, who if rightly spell’d, Into one man, are monysyllabled.
1663. Butler, Hud., I. II. 22. Compos’d of many Ingredient Valors Just like the Manhood of nine Taylors.
1819. Scott, Lett., 26 July, in Lockhart. They say it takes nine tailors to make a man—apparently, one is sufficient to ruin him.
1908. H. B. Walters, in Church Bells, 96. ‘Nine Tailors make a man,’ is said to be really ‘nine tellers,’ ‘tellers’ being the strokes for male, female, or child, in a funeral knell or passing bell. 3 × 3 for male. [In Dorset these strokes are said to be called tailors: Acad., 11 Feb., 1899, 190/1.]
2. A name given to several kinds of fish, as a. The tailor-herring and the tailor-shad: see 6. b. The Silversides. c. The Bleak. d. The Australian Skipjack, Temnodon saltator (New South Wales).
1676. Phil. Trans., XI. 625. In the Creeks are great store of small fish, as Perches, Crokers, Taylors, Eels.
1860. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., Tailor, a fish resembling the shad, but inferior to it in size and flavor…. On the Potomac, the Blue fish is called a Salt-water tailor.
1880. Rep. Roy. Comm. Fisheries N. S. Wales, 22. The ‘Tailor,’ is well known in Port Jackson. The young fish are constantly making their appearance in shoals in the summer season.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal. (ed. 4), 176. Schnapper, Mullet, Jew-fish, Taylor, Travalley, Black-fish.
1888. [see 6].
1890. Fishing Gaz., 18 Jan., 32/1. All Thames anglers know that bleak are nick-named tailors.
3. Short for TAILOR-BIRD, proud tailor (see PROUD a. 10).
1848. Zoologist, VI. 2138. Goldfinches…. That bird is in fact here [Leicestershire] known solely as a ‘proud-tailor,’ though for brevity’s sake … they … speak of it simply as a teelor.
4. a. dial. A kind of caterpillar. b. A tipula or daddy-long-legs.
1682. Lister, Gœdart Of Insects, 131. It bred a creature furnished with 2 wings and 6 long Feet called by us when boyes, the Tayler.
1816. Sporting Mag., XLVIII. 96. The variegated hairy caterpillar called ‘the Tailor.’
1840. Westwood, trans. Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 619. These insects are well known under the names of Daddy long-legs, Tailors, &c.
5. attrib. and Comb. General, as tailor-craft, -man, proprietor, -shears; = tailor-made, as tailor-costume, -frock, -gown, -skirt, -stitching, -suit; tailor-built, -cut, -suited adjs.; also tailor-like adj. and adv.; TAILOR-MADE, q.v.
1905. Daily Chron., 27 May, 3/7. With the hoop, the *tailor-built dress will disappear.
1897. Westm. Gaz., 22 April, 3/1. A *tailor costume destined for hard wear.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xxvi. 122. All maner of craftez,… *talyour craft and sowter craft and swilk oþer.
1835. J. P. Kennedy, Horse Shoe Rob., xxiv. [It] did but little credit to the tailor-craft employed in its fabrication.
1886. G. R. Sims, in Daily News, 4 Dec., 3/5. Her heavy *tailor-cut walking costume.
1891. ‘J. S. Winter,’ Lumley, ix. Mrs. Hope made her appearance in another smart *tailor-frock.
1882. Miss Braddon, Mt. Royal, III. vi. 106. A well-grown … young woman, in a severe *tailor-gown of undyed homespun.
1630. R. Johnson’s Kingd. & Commw., 557. Sitting … with their legges acrosse, *Taylor-like.
1899. Daily News, 27 Feb., 6/6. One such costume … which some *tailor-man introduced as a novelty this season.
1483. Act 1 Rich. III., c. 12 § 1. No merchaunt Straungier … brynge … to be sold any manner Gurdels … *Taillourshires, Scisors [etc.].
1545. Rates of Customs, cvij. Tayler sheres the dossen vj.s. viij.d.
1896. Godey’s Mag., April, 443/1. Two straight flaps … finished with several rows of *tailor-stitching.
1907. Westm. Gaz., 12 April, 13/1. We do not soar beyond the new *tailor-suit for a week or two longer. Ibid. (1906), 13 Oct., 13/1. Élégantes of Paris who were *tailor-suited.
6. Special combinations and collocations: † tailor-fly = sense 4 a; tailor-herring, a clupeoid fish, Pomolobus mediocris, of the Atlantic coast of N. America; also called fall-herring and mattowacca; tailor-legged a., having the knees bent by sitting cross-legged; tailor-shad = tailor-herring; tailor-tartan dial., a daddy-long-legs or crane-fly; tailor-warbler = TAILOR-BIRD; spec. the long-tailed tailor-bird, Sutoria longicauda.
1682. Lister, Gœdart Of Insects, 131. These *Tayler Flyes are very Leacherous; there are double Number of males, for one female.
1767. Poetry, in Ann. Reg., X. 250.
| A *taylor-legg’d Pompey, Cassius, shall you see, | |
| And the ninth-part of Brutus strut in me! |
1888. Goode, Amer. Fishes, 405. [Hickory Shad or Mattowacca] Clupea mediocris. In the Potomac the species is called the *‘Tailor Shad’ or the ‘Freshwater Tailor,’ in contradistinction to the bluefish, which is called the ‘Salt-water Tailor’ [Tomatomax saltatrix].
1896. N. Munro, Lost Pibroch (1902), 64. On the weedy stones the *tailor-tartans leaped like grass-hoppers.
1783. Latham, Gen. Synops. Birds, IV. 515. *Tailor W[arbler]. This is a small species, being only three inches in length.
b. Also with tailor’s: tailor’s block, tailor’s dummy, a lay figure on which to fit or display clothes; also transf. (contemptuous); tailor’s blow: see quot.; tailor’s chair, a legless seat with back and knee rest, used by tailors; tailor’s cramp, ‘a spasmodic affection of the muscles of the thumb, forefinger and forearm, occurring in tailors’ (Syd. Soc. Lex., 1898); tailor’s friend: see quot.; tailor’s muscle, the SARTORIUS; tailor’s spasm, ‘a neurosis affecting the muscles of the hands of tailors’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.); tailor’s twist, stout silk thread used by tailors; tailor’s wagon: see quot.; tailor’s yard, the cloth-yard; tailor’s yard (-band), a popular appellation of Orion’s Belt.
1896. Mrs. Caffyn, Quaker Grandmother, 117. She’s a bit too good for that *tailor’s block.
1673. Hickeringill, Greg. F. Gregb., 175. A *tailors blow, a knock with a thimble.
1889. Doyle, Micah Clarke, 394. Away, away, you *tailor’s dummy!
1904. Woollen Draper’s Terms, in Tailor & Cutt., 4 Aug., 480/1. *Tailors’ Friend, a rather soft make of canvas used for vest interlining, made in white and black, and colours.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., Sartorius, in anatomy, the Taylor’s muscle.
1758. J. S., Le Dran’s Observ. Surg. (1771), Cc viij. The Taylor’s Muscle, so called because it brings the Legs across.
1894. Westm. Gaz., 27 Feb., 6/3. What is known as the ‘tailor’s muscle’ running across the thigh and lifting the leg.
1818. Sporting Mag., II. 232. *Tailors’ Waggons, as we used to call … those great, cumberous, four wheeled chaises.
1547. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), II. 727. xxtie *taylors yerdes from the northe ende of the old Brewhouse.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VI., 186 b. They came not nere the Southermen by .xl. taylors yerdes.
1827. Clare, Sheph. Cal., 111. The *Tailor’s Yard-band, which hangs streaming high.
