Gowning

[goun] /gaʊn/

noun
1.
a woman’s dress or robe, especially one that is full-length.
2.
.
3.
.
4.
.
5.
a loose, flowing outer garment in any of various forms, worn by a man or woman as distinctive of office, profession, or status:
an academic gown.
6.
the student and teaching body in a university or college town.
verb (used with object)
7.
to dress in a gown.
/ɡaʊn/
noun
1.
any of various outer garments, such as a woman’s elegant or formal dress, a dressing robe, or a protective garment, esp one worn by surgeons during operations
2.
a loose wide garment indicating status, such as worn by academics
3.
the members of a university as opposed to the other residents of the university town Compare town (sense 7)
verb
4.
(transitive) to supply with or dress in a gown
n.

c.1300, from Old French goune “robe, coat, habit, gown,” from Late Latin gunna “leather garment, skin, hide,” of unknown origin. Used by St. Boniface (8c.) for a fur garment permitted for old or infirm monks. Klein writes it is probably “a word adopted from a language of the Apennine or the Balkan Peninsula.” OED points to Byzantine Greek gouna, a word for a coarse garment sometimes made of skins, but also notes “some scholars regard [Late Latin gunna] as of Celtic origin.”

In 18c., gown was the common word for what is now usually styled a dress. It was maintained more in the U.S. than in Britain, but was somewhat revived 20c. in fashion senses and in comb. forms (e.g. bridal gown, nightgown). Meaning “flowing robe worn as a badge of office or authority” is from late 14c., on image of the Roman toga. As collective singular for “residents of a university” (1650s) it usually now is opposed to town.

gown (goun)
n.
A robe or smock worn in operating rooms and other parts of hospitals as a guard against contamination.
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