Haberdasher

By some unknown quirk, this word has come to mean, in the UK, a dealer in sewing and dressmaking materials, while in the US it means a dealer in men’s clothing. In both cases, the origin remains obscure. The OED ventures that it comes from an Anglo-Norman French word, hapertas, but sheds no further light, except to say that from the 15th century onwards, haberdash meant ‘small wares’. Both the UK and US current meanings date from the early 17th century.