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An article labeled as news fawned last week over the new Jaguar XE, which was introduced in London in a manner fit for James Bond, dangling from helicopter and crossing the Thames on a speedboat. Repeating the company’s press materials almost verbatim, the article said the “fine-grain leathers and details such as contrasting twin-needle stitching give the cabin a bespoke quality.”
“Bespoke” is such a funny word. Though its base is a verb (the past tense of “speak”), it really exists only as an adjective meaning “ordered to be made.” It also applies to the person or firm making the item. It’s not at all the same as “bespeak,” which is a verb, meaning “to speak for in advance.” So you can have a situation where a “bespoke” tailor “bespeaks” well of the client for whom he made a “bespoke” suit.
That “be-” prefix has many roles. It originally meant “about,” The Oxford English Dictionary says, though “in prepositions and adverbs this is weakened into a general expression of position at or near,” as in “before” “beneath,” “beyond,” and the like. It can take a transitive verb (“moan”) and make it intransitive (“bemoan”). It can indicate that something is added (“bejeweled”) or that something is taken away (“beheaded”).
Writers will sometimes use “bespoken” to mean something custom-made. That works too, though the preferred adjective is “bespoke,” even if it sounds funny to American ears.
Today, most uses of “bespoke” refer to clothing. But its first use, in 1755, according to the OED, referred to a play; it was another hundred years before it was first applied to wearables. As a Google ngram shows, its usage in books peaked in the early 19th century and bottomed out about 1980, and is now again on the rise.
Perhaps not surprisingly, The New York Times used it more than any other US publication in the past three months, according to a Nexis search, with “bespoke” appearing nearly three dozen times, excluding in proper names. Among the things that were “bespoken” for in the Times were, of course, items of clothing (jacket, shoes, suit), but also trunks for that clothing, cocktails, croquet equipment, and despair (in a book review).
It’s tempting to say that “bespoke” is advertising-speak, a pretentious word, but it is both more and less that. It conveys a high-end feel, one that elevates “custom made” to private jet status, with a British accent. As such, it can be useful. But as a mere synonym for “custom made,” you should put it back on the rack.
Merrill Perlman managed copy desks across the newsroom at the New York Times, where she worked for twenty-five years. Follow her on Twitter at @meperl.