WORD OF THE DAY: SARTORIAL
adjective|sahr-TOR-ee-ul
What It Means
Sartorial broadly means “of or relating to clothes,” but it often more specifically means “of or relating to a tailor or tailored clothes.”
// This particular English teacher is known both for engaging students deeply in literature and for her eccentric sartorial tastes.
Examples of SARTORIAL
“As always, the Princess’s sartorial elegance shone through this year, with her championing British designers, turning to old favourites and adorning treasures she’s been gifted from the royal family over the years.” — Hello! Magazine (UK), 30 Dec. 2025
Did You Know?
Study the seams in the word sartorial and you’ll find the common adjective suffix -ial and sartor, a Medieval Latin noun meaning “tailor.” (Sartor comes ultimately from Latin sarcire, “to mend.”) Sartorial has bedecked the English language since the early decades of the 19th century as a word describing things relating to clothes and to tailors, while sartor, though never fully adopted into the language, has also seen occasional use as a synonym for tailor. A third word shares the same root: sartorius (plural sartorii) refers to the longest muscle in the human body. Crossing the front of the thigh obliquely, it assists in rotating the leg to the cross-legged position in which the knees are spread wide apart—and in which tailors have traditionally sat.
Merriam Webster Dictionary
