Chasuble

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈt͡ʃæzjʊbəl/

Definitions

1. A sleeveless outer garment worn by clergy during religious ceremonies to symbolize charity and righteousness
2. A ceremonial robe used by priests over other vestments during Christian services, usually ornate and flowing
3. A decorative ecclesiastical cloak worn by ministers to cover their other clothing in liturgical worship

Etymology: The vestment's name began as a word for a humble shelter. Latin "casa" meant "house" or "cottage", and its diminutive "casula" meant "little cottage", which by extension came to mean a hooded cloak, the sort of garment that wrapped a traveller like a small roof. Late Latin then altered it to "casubla", and Old French turned that into "chesible", the form English borrowed as "chesible" in Middle English. The English spelling later shifted to "chasuble", reshaped to look more like the Latin it came from. So a priest's flowing outer garment carries the name of a little house, a link that is easy to miss once the word has been used for centuries only in church settings.