bespoke

English

Etymology

In sense “custom-made”, 1755, from earlier bespoken (c. 1600), form of bespeak, in sense “arrange beforehand” (1580s),^[1] a prefixed variant of speak; compare order, made-to-order.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /bɪˈspəʊk/
• (US) IPA^(key): /bəˈspoʊk/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (US):

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• Hyphenation: be‧spoke
• Rhymes: -əʊk

Adjective

bespoke (not comparable)

(British, Ireland, less common in North America)

1. Individually or custom-made.

   Synonyms: custom, custom made, purpose-built, tailored, tailor-made; see also Thesaurus:custom-made

   • 1983 March 7, Kurt Andersen, “Her Majesty in Mellowland”, in Time:

     Marc Valeric, a Beverly Hills milliner, sold 125 bespoke hats in two weeks to women desperate to dress properly for royal receptions.

   • 2001, Robin Osborne, “Why Did Athenian Pots Appeal to the Etruscans?”, in World Archaeology‎, volume 33, number 2, Taylor & Francis, →JSTOR, page 278:

     Were Athenian pots bespoke, bearing images requested by Etruscans?

   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 10, in The Line of Beauty […], 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

     People gathered round, since it was something of an event, their MP, in his bespoke pinstripe and red tie, clutching an old Wellington boot and about to hurl it through the air.

   • 2012 August 1, Ed Yong, “Replacement Parts”, in The Scientist‎, retrieved 2012-08-12:

     … others are attempting the more ambitious feat of engineering bespoke human organs from scratch.

   • 2016, The Tube: Going Underground, season 1, episode 6:

     There are 436 escalators in the London Underground, and every one is totally bespoke.

   • 2017, “Elements Part 2: Bespoken For”, in Adventure Time:

     You need to get a nice bespoked suit. "Bespoke" means i's custom-made to fit your specific dimensions and emphasize what's flattering about your shape.

   • 2024, Dan Olson, 1:06:09 from the start, in I Don't Know James Rolfe‎:

     [I]t becomes a game of parkour just to change a battery, and when you’re working mostly alone that gets frustrating really fast, and when you get frustrated you get impulsive, and those impulses lead to half measure solutions, and those half measure solutions accumulate into a whole network of bespoke inefficiencies that you just live with because the process of unravelling them feels just so... big.

2. Relating to someone who makes custom-made products, especially clothing items.

   a bespoke tailor

Usage notes

• Primarily used for tailoring, now also used more generally, as an alternative term for custom-made, notably for software, as in a “bespoke solution”.

Derived terms

• bespokely
• bespokeness

 

Translations

individually or custom-made

Catalan: a mida (locution) Chinese: Mandarin: 定做的 (dìngzuò de), 定製的／定制的 (dìngzhì de) Czech: na míru, zakázkový Dutch: op maat gemaakt Finnish: räätälöity (fi), yksilöllinen (fi), erikoisvalmisteinen, mitta- (fi), mittatilaus-, mittojen mukaan tehty French: taillé à sa mesure, fait sur mesure, personnalisé (fr) German: maßgeschneidert (de) Italian: su misura Japanese: あつらえの (atsurae no) Mongolian: please add this translation if you can Norwegian: Bokmål: skreddersydd, spesialtilpasset Polish: uszyty na miarę Portuguese: sob medida Russian: сде́ланный/изгото́вленный на зака́з (sdélannyj/izgotóvlennyj na zakáz) Spanish: a medida (locution) Swedish: skräddarsydd (sv) Turkish: ısmarlama (tr)

relating to someone who makes custom-made products

Chinese: Mandarin: (must be followed by a specific product) 定做的 (dìngzuò de), 定製的／定制的 (dìngzhì de) Finnish: tilaustöitä tekevä, mittatilaustöitä tekevä Russian: please add this translation if you can

Verb

bespoke

1. simple past of bespeak
2. (archaic) past participle of bespeak

References

1. Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “bespoke”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.