Other forms: garbs
Garb is clothing of a particular kind. Priestly garb, in strange garb, traditional garb.
It always names a costume that marks somebody out — religious, ceremonial, professional — which is why the word rarely applies to ordinary clothes. It is slightly literary. Note that the Italian behind it meant grace or elegance, so garb once described the style of the dress rather than the dress itself.
1noungarbClothing of a particular kind.
“The monks walked through the town in their simple brown garb.”
garb is clothing.
Middle French garbe comes from Italian garbo, grace or elegance, from a Germanic word for equipment. Gear is a relative.
Proto-Germanic
*garwijaną — to prepare
Frankish
*garwijan — to prepare
Italian
garbo — grace, elegance
Middle French
garbe
English, today
garb
Built from
From Middle French garbe "graceful outline, silhouette"; > Modern French galbe, from Italian garbo (“grace, elegance”), from gem - (compare Old High German garwi, garawi (“dress, equipment, preparation”), Middle High German gerwe (“outfitting, jewelry, clothing, robe, regalia”), modern German Gärbe, Gerbe and English gear), ultimately from Frankish garwijan (“to prepare”), from Proto-Germanic garwijaną (“to prepare”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA