Where does “overdressed” come from?

overdressed (English) comes from English overdress, from English dress, from English -ing, from Old English -ing, from Old English -tūn, from Old English tūn, from Proto-West Germanic tūn, from Proto-Germanic tūną — smoke; mist, haze.

overdressed (English): Wearing too many clothes for the weather or the occasion

Definitions

  1. Wearing too many clothes for the weather or the occasion

Ancestry of “overdressed”, step by step

overdressed traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via English overdress

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishoverdressTo wear too many clothes for a particular...
2EnglishdressTo fit out with the necessary clothing; to...
3English-ingUsed to form gerunds, a type of verbal nouns,...
4Old English-ingForming nouns from verbs, indicating action,...
5Old English-tūnhomestead, village, town
6Old Englishtūnenclosure, yard; place; dwelling
7Proto-West Germanictūnfence
8Proto-Germanictūnąfence; enclosure
9Gaulishdunumfort; hill, hillfort
10Proto-Celticdūnomstronghold, rampart
11Proto-Indo-Europeandʰewh₂-smoke; mist, haze

via English dressed

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Englishdressedsimple past tense and past participle of dress;...
Every word from Proto-Indo-European dʰewh₂-Every word from Proto-Celtic dūnomEvery word from English -ing