An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Weste

by Friedrich Kluge

Weste, feminine, ‘vest, waistcoat,’ adopted as a current term in the last century. Since the word is unknown to the older dialects, it must have been borrowed from French veste (Latin vestis); had it, however, appeared earlier in the Old Teutonic dialects, it would have been primitively allied to Latin vestis. The modern dialectic form, Middle High German wester, ‘christening gown’ (found especially in compounds), is based on the same Aryan root as Latin vestis. With the Aryan root wes, ‘to clothe’ (equivalent to Sanscrit vas, Greek ἔννυμι for *ϝεσ-νυμς, Latin ves-tis), are also connected Gothic wasjan, ‘to dress,’ Old High German and Anglo-Saxon węrian, English to wear.