c. 1200, "action of dressing in clothes," verbal noun from clothe. From late 13c. as "clothes collectively, raiment, apparel;" 1590s as an adjective.
c. 1200, "separate parts of anything written" (such as the statements in the Apostles' Creed, the clauses of a statute or contract), from Old French article (13c.), from Latin articulus "a part, a member," also "a knuckle; the article in grammar," diminutive of artus "a joint" (from PIE *ar(ə)-tu-, suffixed form of root *ar- "to fit together").
Meaning "literary composition in a journal, etc." (independent and on a specific topic, but part of a larger work) is recorded by 1712. The older sense is preserved in Articles of War "military regulations" (1716), Articles of Confederation (U.S. history), etc. The extended meaning "piece of property, material thing, commodity" (clothing, etc.) is attested by 1796, originally in rogue's cant.
The grammatical sense of "word used attributively, to limit the application of a noun to one individual or set of individuals" is from 1530s, from this sense in Latin articulus, translating Greek arthron "a joint," the part of speech (with different meanings in ancient Greek and modern English) so called on the notion of the "pivots" or "joints" on which the propositions in a sentence are in various ways tied together.
c. 1400, "clothes, an article of clothing, vesture" (archaic), shortening of arayment "clothing" (late 14c.), from Anglo-French araiement, from Old French areement, from areer "to array" (see array (v.)).
"articles of (women's) clothing that may be worn in various combinations," 1945, from separate (adj.). Earlier, in the publishing trade, the word meant "printed article or document issued separately, for distribution, from the volume of which it forms a part" (1886). As a noun, separate is attested from 1610s in the sense "separatist."
Old English claðas "cloths; garments for the body," originally the plural of clað "cloth" (see cloth), which, in 19c., after the sense of "article of clothing" had mostly faded from it, acquired a new plural form, cloths, to distinguish it from this word. Clothes-hanger attested from 1860.
"put or take off" an article of clothing, especially a hat or cap, late 14c., doffen, a contraction of do off, preserving the original sense of do as "put." At the time of Johnson's Dictionary [1755] the word was "obsolete, and rarely used except by rustics," and also in literature as a conscious archaism, but it was saved from extinction (along with don (v.)) by Sir Walter Scott. However, dout and dup did not survive. Related: Doffed; doffing.
