Origins
The word 'vestment' belongs to one of the most prolific etymological families in the Indo-European world: the descendants of Proto-Indo-European *wes-, meaning to clothe or wear. This ancient root produced Latin 'vestis' (garment), Sanskrit 'vastra' (cloth), Greek 'hennynai' (to clothe, from *wes-numi), Gothic 'wasjan' (to dress), and — through Germanic pathways — English 'wear.' Few basic human activities have left a deeper mark on vocabulary than the act of covering the body.
Latin 'vestis' generated a cascade of derivatives: 'vestīre' (to clothe), 'vestīmentum' (a garment), 'vestibulum' (an entrance hall, originally where one put on outdoor clothes), 'vestiārium' (a wardrobe or cloakroom). English has borrowed liberally from this family: 'vest,' 'vestry,' 'vestibule,' 'invest,' 'divest,' 'travesty,' and 'transvestite' all trace back to the same Latin root.
The word 'vestīmentum' entered Old French as 'vestement' (modern French 'vêtement'), retaining its general sense of any garment or article of clothing. Middle English borrowed it around 1250, initially using it in both the general sense (clothing) and the specialized sense (liturgical robes). Over time, the general sense faded in English — 'garment,' 'clothing,' and 'dress' took over that territory — and 'vestment' narrowed to its exclusively religious meaning.
Latin Roots
This narrowing reflects a broader pattern in English: many Latin-derived words that entered through ecclesiastical channels retained or developed specialized religious meanings, while native Germanic words served for everyday use. You wear 'clothes' (Germanic) on the street and 'vestments' (Latin) at the altar.
The specific vestments of the Christian clergy evolved over centuries from ordinary Roman dress. The alb, chasuble, dalmatic, stole, and cope were all originally everyday garments of the late Roman Empire. As secular fashion changed in the early medieval period, the Church conserved the old forms, and what had been ordinary clothing became ritual dress simply by staying the same while everything else moved on. The word 'vestment' thus carries an implicit archaeology of fashion: each priestly garment is a fossil of Roman daily life.
The most fascinating derivative of 'vestis' is arguably 'invest.' Latin 'investīre' meant to clothe someone, specifically to dress them in the robes of office — to place the vestments of authority on their body. Medieval feudal ceremonies of investiture were literally about clothing: a lord received a title by being draped in the garments appropriate to his new rank. The metaphorical extension to financial investment — clothing a venture with capital — emerged in the seventeenth century, but the textile imagery persists in expressions like 'putting your shirt on' a bet or 'being stripped of' one's assets.
Cultural Impact
'Travesty' provides another revealing branch. It comes from Italian 'travestire' (to disguise), literally 'to cross-dress' — from 'tra-' (across, from Latin 'trans-') and 'vestire' (to dress). A travesty is, at root, a disguise, something dressed up as what it is not. The modern sense of a grotesque imitation preserves this idea of false clothing, of appearances that deceive.
In contemporary English, 'vestment' remains firmly in the religious register. A Google search for the word returns images of chasubles, stoles, and copes rather than suits or dresses. This specialization has given the word a dignity and formality that its Latin ancestor, which could refer to any old tunic, never possessed. The journey from *wes- (to wear) to 'vestment' (sacred ceremonial robe) traces the human tendency to elevate the ordinary — to take the basic act of covering the body and invest it with transcendent meaning.