fashion

Alternative forms

• fascion (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English facioun, from Anglo-Norman, from Old Northern French fechoun (compare Jersey Norman faichon), variant of Old French faceon, fazon, façon (“fashion, form, make, outward appearance”), from Latin factiō (“a making”), from faciō (“do, make”); see fact. Doublet of faction.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfæʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æʃən

Noun

fashion (countable and uncountable, plural fashions)

1. (countable) A current (constantly changing) trend, favored for frivolous rather than practical, logical, or intellectual reasons.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess‎:

     The huge square box, parquet-floored and high-ceilinged, had been arranged to display a suite of bedroom furniture designed and made in the halcyon days of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when modish taste was just due to go clean out of fashion for the best part of the next hundred years.

2. (uncountable) Popular trends.

   Check out the latest in fashion.

   • John Locke

     the innocent diversions in fashion

   • H. Spencer

     As now existing, fashion is a form of social regulation analogous to constitutional government as a form of political regulation.

3. (countable) A style or manner in which something is done.
   • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot Chapter V

     When it had advanced from the wood, it hopped much after the fashion of a kangaroo, using its hind feet and tail to propel it, and when it stood erect, it sat upon its tail.

   • 2011 October 1, Phil Dawkes, “Sunderland 2 - 2 West Brom”, in BBC Sport‎:

     It shell-shocked the home crowd, who quickly demanded a response, which came midway through the half and in emphatic fashion.

   • Shakespeare

     OPHELIA - My lord, he hath importuned me with love in honourable fashion. LORD POLONIUS - Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to.

4. The make or form of anything; the style, shape, appearance, or mode of structure; pattern, model; workmanship; execution.

   the fashion of the ark, of a coat, of a house, of an altar, etc.

   • Bible, Luke ix. 29

     The fashion of his countenance was altered.

   • Shakespeare

     I do not like the fashion of your garments.

5. (dated) Polite, fashionable, or genteel life; social position; good breeding.

   men of fashion

Verb

fashion (third-person singular simple present fashions, present participle fashioning, simple past and past participle fashioned)

1. To make, build or construct.
   • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot Chapter IX

     I have three gourds which I fill with water and take back to my cave against the long nights. I have fashioned a spear and a bow and arrow, that I may conserve my ammunition, which is running low.

   • 2005, Plato, Sophist, translation by Lesley Brown, 235b:

     […] a device fashioned by arguments against that kind of prey.

2. (dated) To make in a standard manner; to work.
   • John Locke

     Fashioned plate sells for more than its weight.

3. (dated) To fit, adapt, or accommodate to.
   • Spenser

     Laws ought to be fashioned to the manners and conditions of the people.

4. (obsolete) To forge or counterfeit.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

Trivia

One of three common words containing shion, which are cushion, fashion, and parishioner.^[1][2]

References

Further reading

• fashion in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• fashion in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Etymology

Borrowed from English fashion.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɛ.ʃõ/

Adjective

fashion (invariable, comparable)

1. (slang) fashionable, trendy

Etymology

Borrowed from English fashion.

Adjective

fashion (invariable)

1. fashionable, trendy

Noun

fashion m (plural fashions or fashion)

1. fashion