Etymology
1. 1296, from Anglo-Fr.
tailour, from O.Fr.
tailleor "tailor," lit. "a cutter," from
tailler "to cut," from M.L.
taliator vestium "a cutter of clothes," from L.L.
taliare "to split," from L.
talea "a slender stick, rod, staff, a cutting, twig," on the notion of a piece of a plant cut for grafting. Possible cognates include Skt.
talah "wine palm," O.Lith.
talokas "a young girl," Gk.
talis "a marriageable girl" (for sense, cf.
slip of a girl, twiggy), Etruscan
Tholna, name of the goddess of youth.
"Although historically the tailor is the cutter, in the trade the 'tailor' is the man who sews or makes up what the 'cutter' has shaped." [OED]
The verb is recorded from 1662; fig. sense of "to design (something) to suit needs" is attested from 1942.
Tailor-made first recorded 1832 (in a fig. sense); originally "heavy and plain," as of women's garments made by a tailor rather than a dress-maker.
2. Etymology tree
3. Latin tālea
4. Proto-Indo-European *-h₂
5. Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂
6. Proto-Indo-European *-yéti
7. Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti
8. Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu.
9. Proto-Italic *-ājō
10. Proto-Italic *-āō
11. Latin -ō
12. Late Latin tāliō
13. Old French taillierder.
14. Old French tailleorder.
15. Anglo-Norman taillourbor.
16. Middle English taillour
17. English tailor
18. Inherited from Middle English taillour, from Anglo-Norman taillour, from Old French tailleor, from taillier, from Late Latin tāliō, from Latin tālea (“a cutting”). Doublet of tailleur.
19. Compare typologically German Schneider (akin to English snithe); Macedonian кројач (krojač), Polish krawiec (akin to Proto-Slavic *krojiti).