Origins
Every financial investment is, at its etymological core, a wardrobe change.βββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββ Latin investΔ«re meant 'to clothe, to dress', from in- ('in') and vestΔ«re ('to clothe'). To invest was to put on garments.
The medieval church made the word ceremonial. An investiture was the act of dressing a new bishop or abbot in the vestments of office. To invest someone with authority was literally to hand them the robes. The Investiture Controversy of the 11th and 12th centuries β the power struggle over who could dress bishops β was fought over this exact meaning.
Figurative Development
The financial sense appeared in 17th-century Italy, where investire came to mean putting money into a venture. The metaphor was vivid: you clothe your capital in the garments of a business, transforming bare money into something productive. The clothing metaphor persists in phrases like 'dressing up a portfolio'.
The Latin root vestis left a rich wardrobe in English. A vest is a garment. Vestments are ceremonial clothes. To divest is to undress β to strip away holdings. Most surprisingly, travesty belongs to this family: Italian travestire meant 'to disguise by cross-dressing', from tra- ('across') and vestire ('to clothe'). A travesty is something dressed in the wrong clothes.