wordrobe

n.

The words and phrases that comprise a person's vocabulary.

Example Citation:

"He spent his idle hours tailoring new words and stitching together new phrases in an effort to build up his wordrobe."

Notes:

Wordrobe is a blend of WORD and WARDROBE, "a person’s stock of wearing apparel." The latter also means "a room in which wearing apparel is kept," and in that sense it comes from the Old French word GARDEROBE (GARDER, "to keep" + ROBE). The word ROBE goes back to the Vulgar Latin RAUBA, "clothes taken away as booty," which also morphed into the word ROB, "to steal." The source of all these words is the Indo-European root REUP-, "to snatch," from which we also get RIP, "to tear," which dovetails nicely with the modern phrase "rip off." Perhaps, then, we can bring things full circle by "tailoring" a new addition to our wordrobe: WORDRIP "to plagiarize."

Category:

Language (General)