Alternate word for "Livery"

ULTRAGOTHA

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Hi all! I'm poking around with an alternative historical story where I want to avoid as many words with French origins as possible. Body servant instead of valet, for example.

I'm looking for a decent replacement word for "livery". I don't want to use uniform as there are military and military-adjacent people who would wear a uniform.

"A servant dressed in Mercia's colors" is one way I've addressed this but I find it unsatisfying and thought I'd ask here if anyone had some good ideas. Something based in Norwegian, other Scandinavian languages, or Old English would work, perhaps.

If this is better for the Sandbox, please punt it there.

Thank you!
 

stephenf

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Hi
Do you really need to avoid French words . English is 30% French and often alternatives would be unknown or look wrong . Your Mercia's colors is meaningless to me , but a pink uniform is easier to imaging . Uniform is the same in German but in Swedish it is Enhetlig
 

ElaineA

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If it's pre-1066, French wouldn't have made it into an English setting. Since it's Mercia, I'm assuming we're talking pre-William? Could you go with something slightly more specific, like tunic, UG?
 

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Hi all! I'm poking around with an alternative historical story where I want to avoid as many words with French origins as possible. Body servant instead of valet, for example.

I'm looking for a decent replacement word for "livery". I don't want to use uniform as there are military and military-adjacent people who would wear a uniform.

"A servant dressed in Mercia's colors" is one way I've addressed this but I find it unsatisfying and thought I'd ask here if anyone had some good ideas. Something based in Norwegian, other Scandinavian languages, or Old English would work, perhaps.

If this is better for the Sandbox, please punt it there.

Thank you!

House colors; the [Duke's] colors. Mercia's boar . . . Mercia's green and gold . . .
You'd introduce the emblem and / or colors earlier, then refer to them at will.
 

dpaterso

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Instead of being identifiable by the color of their surcoats or tunics, they might wear sewn emblems or insignia instead, e.g. A servant bearing Mercia's hawk emblem. Depends on the era, obvs. I can't help but wonder if servants would just dress in ordinary serf clothes while colors/emblems would be worn by knights and/or soldiers. Just random thoughts.

...or what AW Admin said!

-Derek
 
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ULTRAGOTHA

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It's set in 1810, but the English won the Battle of Hastings, hence the derth of French words.

I'm not going full Uncleftish Beholding--I want this story to be as natural English as possible--but I am trying to find more Germanic-derived versions of words than French ones.

AW Admin, and dpaterso, I may go that route and assign heraldry to all the Jarls mentioned in the story. That might work.

Other ideas still welcome! I've got a sentence that is more or less "servants in livery bustling around" and am looking for a generic replacement.
 
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Tanydwr

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If you're still looking - I did a lot of this for one of my fantasy universes, where they speak a version of English without the Latin/Norman influence. It's very difficult! If it's set in Mercia, certain Latin-based words would be fine, since the Romans left behind a fair bit of vocabulary. The Online Etymology Dictionary (www.etymonline.com) is a really good resource for this.

As for the 'livery' question - I use 'weeds' to replace uniform! Pretty much the only context you hear it now is as in 'widow's weeds,' but that's what it originally meant. In addition to the suggestions about referring to emblems, etc., you might want to use 'mark' or 'markings' as well (i.e. the mark of the Mercian king). There's also 'suit,' but this came into English via Norman. Uniform was from Middle French, and started off being used in the adjective sense (i.e. to make things look uniform).

I don't know if any of that helps, but I understand your struggle! I have whole dictionaries created for my stories, although I tend to focus more on the dialogue being properly 'Germanic' than the prose.
 

Tom from UK

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In 1810 French was the international language of diplomacy, so hardly that alien within a certain level of society. Of course, if your alternate history has a much diminished France that may not have happened. That's a thing with alternate history - the ripples spread.
 

Beanie5

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atire, finery, clothes, colours, dress, wares,outfit, threads.
 
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benbenberi

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Is the "livery" in your story a full suit of clothes, or a smaller indicator the person displays? In historical Europe, full uniforms didn't exist even in the military till the mid-17th century. The "livery" displayed by servants and followers into the 18c was generally more along the lines of a badge or scarf. (The most common form of livery for servants in the 16-17c was a bunch of significantly-colored ribbons worn on the left shoulder, in a fashion context where ribbons were popular & expensive.) Think gang colors, not uniform.

For the not-a-full-suit-of-clothes type of livery, you can get as general or specific as you like. The "colors of Mercia," the "badge of Mercia," the "striped sash of Mercia," the "embroidered blue pig of Mercia," etc.
 

ULTRAGOTHA

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I like the blue pig of Mercia. ;-)

I had envisioned the sort of a-few-decades-behind-the-times clothing servants in the early 19th century wore, but in the colors of the Jarls coat of arms.

Hmmm. I wonder what they did, and what they called it, in Norway around the same time period...?

>off to google<