Origins
The word 'dress' has one of the most instructive semantic histories in the English vocabulary, demonstrating how a word meaning 'to make straight' can evolve, over centuries and through metaphorical extension, into the name of a garment. Its journey from Latin geometry to a woman's wardrobe is a case study in how language changes through the accumulation of small, logical shifts in meaning.
The ultimate source is Latin 'dīrigere' (to direct, set straight, guide), a compound of 'dis-' (apart) and 'regere' (to rule, keep straight). The past participle 'dīrectus' (made straight, direct) developed in Vulgar Latin into the verb *directiāre (to make straight, to arrange), which passed into Old French as 'dresser.' In Old French, 'dresser' meant 'to arrange, set up, prepare, make ready' — one could 'dresser' a table (set it for a meal), 'dresser' troops (arrange them in formation), or 'dresser' a wound (prepare and treat it).
Middle English borrowed the verb in the fourteenth century as 'dressen,' initially preserving the French range of meanings: to arrange, prepare, set in order, make ready. The sense 'to put clothes on (someone or oneself)' emerged naturally from the idea of 'preparing' or 'arranging' a person — making them presentable. 'To dress' meant, essentially, 'to get ready,' and getting ready included putting on clothes.
Development
For several centuries, 'dress' was primarily a verb. The noun use — 'a dress' meaning a specific garment — did not appear until the seventeenth century. Before that, the noun 'dress' meant 'clothing in general' or 'attire' (a sense preserved in phrases like 'dress code,' 'full dress,' and 'battle dress'). The specialization of 'a dress' to mean specifically a one-piece woman's garment is even more recent, dating from the eighteenth century.
The older senses of 'dress' survive in many contexts that have nothing to do with clothing. A chef 'dresses' a salad (prepares it with a sauce — hence 'salad dressing'). A surgeon 'dresses' a wound (cleans and bandages it — hence 'wound dressing'). A stonemason 'dresses' stone (shapes and smooths it). A butcher 'dresses' a carcass (prepares it for sale). A soldier stands at 'dress right dress' (aligning the formation — the most literal survival of the original 'make straight' meaning). In each case, the core sense is the Old French one: to arrange, prepare, set in order.
The word 'address' is a close relative, from Old French 'adresser' (to direct toward, to set right), from the same Vulgar Latin root with the prefix 'ad-' (toward). 'Direct' itself entered English separately, borrowed directly from Latin 'dīrectus' rather than through French. So 'dress,' 'address,' and 'direct' are all siblings from the same Latin parent, each entering English by a different route and at a different time.
French Influence
The noun 'dresser' (a piece of furniture) comes from the Old French sense of 'dresser' as 'to set up' — a dresser was originally a sideboard on which food was 'dressed' (prepared and arranged) before serving. The modern bedroom 'dresser' (a chest of drawers for storing clothes) represents a later semantic extension, influenced by the clothing sense of 'dress.'
The cultural history of the dress as a garment is intertwined with the history of gender. For most of Western history, both men and women wore long garments that modern English would call 'dresses.' The restriction of the word 'dress' to women's clothing is a relatively recent development, postdating the emergence of distinct male and female silhouettes in European fashion during the late medieval and early modern periods. The phrase 'dress up' (to wear formal or elaborate clothing) and 'cross-dress' (to wear clothing associated with the opposite gender) both reflect the culturally loaded nature of clothing and its deep entanglement with identity.