Dressinge

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Archaic term for the act of putting garments on a person or arranging attire ; a seasoning sauce or stuffing prepared to accompany food ; a bandage or healing salve applied over an injury
2. Old spelling referring to the process of garbing or decorating someone ; a savoury sauce or filling served with a meal ; a medicinal covering or ointment laid over a wound
3. The clothing or ornamentation put on a person in earlier English ; a flavourful sauce or stuffing added to dishes ; a protective wrap or medicinal paste used to treat a cut or sore

Etymology: This spelling is a Middle English form of "dressing," in which the final "-e" and the "-inge" ending were common in medieval manuscripts. The root idea is not clothing at all. It is straightness. The verb it comes from, Old French "dresser," meant to arrange, set upright, or put in order, and it likely traces back through a Vulgar Latin form to Latin "directus," "straight." English borrowed the verb in the Middle Ages, and it first meant to make something straight or ready, as in setting up a line of soldiers or a row of stones. From that sense of preparing or putting in order, the word spread in several directions. Arranging a person's clothing gave the sense of dressing oneself, and preparing a wound with bandages gave the medical sense. Preparing food gave the culinary senses, including the seasoning poured over salad and the stuffing used in roast poultry. The "-ing" ending, inherited from Old English, turns the verb into a noun for the result of that action.