colier

Latin collare (a band for the neck) came from collum (neck). Old French inherited it as colier, and English adopted it as collar by the fourteenth century. The original meaning was straightforward: a band that goes around the neck. A dog's collar. A horse's collar. A slave's collar. The garment collar — the fabric band at the neck of a shirt or coat — was just one application of a general concept.

The shirt collar evolved through centuries of fashion. Ruffs — the elaborate pleated circles worn by Elizabethans — were extreme collars. Standing collars, falling collars, wing collars, point collars, button-down collars — each era and social class developed its preferred shape. The collar became the most expressive part of a man's shirt: the part visible above the suit, the part that framed the face, the part that communicated formality or casualness.

White-collar and blue-collar, as class descriptions, appeared in the 1920s and 1930s. Office workers wore white shirts with white collars. Factory workers wore blue denim or chambray shirts. The color of a neck band became a shorthand for economic class. The distinction persists in economic analysis, political rhetoric, and popular culture — a collar color still signals a type of work and a social position.

The clerical collar — a white band worn by Christian clergy — dates to the mid-nineteenth century. It was an identifier, like a uniform. 'To collar' someone means to grab them by the neck — to arrest. 'To be collared' means to be caught. A 'collar' in law enforcement is an arrest. The neck, it turns out, is the part of the body most associated with both authority and control.