trousseau
/ˈtruːsəʊ
/noun (plural trousseaux or trousseaus /ˈtruːsəʊz/)
The clothes, linen, and other belongings collected by a bride for her marriage.The trousseau of a young bride would contain twenty or thirty of these dresses, seven of which are worn, one on top of the other, on the ‘night of henna’ immediately prior to the marriage ceremony....
- The period between the betrothal and the wedding also allowed the bride to prepare her trousseau, while the groom could use the time to make preparations for the wedding.
- It is the bridegroom who has to present a wedding trousseau to the bride.
Origin
Mid 19th century: from French, diminutive of trousse 'bundle' (a sense also found in Middle English).
The romantic trousseau conjures up an image of a blushing bride in flowing white or smart honeymoon outfit, but the original meaning was simply a bundle or package, and it did not acquire its modern meaning until the 1830s. The word derives from French trousse, an earlier form of which gave us truss (Middle English) ‘a supporting framework’, and ‘a surgical support for a hernia’.