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suit: suit: [13] As in the case of its first cousins sect and set, the etymological notion underlying suit is ‘following’. It comes via Anglo-Norman siute from Vulgar Latin *sequita, a noun use of the feminine past participle of *sequere ‘follow’, which in turn was an alteration of Latin sequī ‘follow’ (source of English consequence, persecute, sequence, etc).

It was originally used for a ‘body of followers, retinue’, and it passed from this via a ‘set of things in general’ to (in the 15th century) a ‘set of clothes or armour’. Suite [17] is essentially the same word, but borrowed from modern French. A suitor [13] is etymologically a ‘follower’.
=> sect, set, sue, suite
birthday suit (n.): first attested 1730s, but probably much older. The notion is the suit of clothes one was born in, i.e., no clothes at all. Compare Middle English mother naked "naked as the day one was born;" Middle Dutch moeder naect, German mutternackt.
casuist (n.): c. 1600, "one who studies and resolves cases of conscience," from French casuiste (17c.) or Spanish casuista (the French word also might be from Spanish), Italian casista, all from Latin casus (see case (n.1)) in its Medieval Latin sense "case of conscience." Often since 17c. in a sinister or contemptuous sense. Related: Casuistic; casuistical; casuistically; casuistry.
Casuistry ... destroys, by distinctions and exceptions, all morality, and effaces the essential difference between right and wrong. [Bolingbroke, 1736]
catsuit (n.): also cat-suit, 1960, from cat (n.) + suit (n.).
en suite: French, literally "as part of a series or set" (see suite (n.)).
Jesuit: 1540s, from Modern Latin Jesuita, member of the Society of Jesus, founded 1533 by Ignatius Loyola to combat Protestantism. Their enemies (in both Catholic and Protestant lands) accused them of belief that ends justify means, hence the sense "a dissembling person" (1630s), and jesuitical "deceitful" (1610s).
lawsuit (n.): 1620s, from law + suit (n.).
pantsuit (n.): 1966, contraction of pants suit (1964), from pants + suit (n.).
pursuit (n.): late 14c., "persecution," also "action of pursuit," from Anglo-French purseute, from Old French porsuite "a search, pursuit" (14c., Modern French poursuite), from porsivre (see pursue). Sense of "one's profession, recreation, etc." first recorded 1520s. As a type of track cycling race from 1938.
spacesuit (n.): also space-suit, 1920, from space (n.) + suit (n.).
sui generis: 1787, Latin, literally "of one's own kind, peculiar." First element from sui, genitive of suus "his, her, its, one's," from Old Latin sovos, from PIE root *swe-, pronoun of the third person (see idiom).
sui juris: 1610s, "of full legal age and capacity," in ancient Rome, "of the status of one not subject to the patria potestas." For first element, see sui generis; for second element, see jurist.
suicidal (adj.): "leading or tending to suicide," 1777, from suicide + -al (1). Related: Suicidally.
suicide (n.): "deliberate killing of oneself," 1650s, from Modern Latin suicidium "suicide," from Latin sui "of oneself" (genitive of se "self"), from PIE *s(u)w-o- "one's own," from root *s(w)e- (see idiom) + -cidium "a killing" (see -cide). Probably an English coinage; much maligned by Latin purists because it "may as well seem to participate of sus, a sow, as of the pronoun sui" [Phillips]. The meaning "person who kills himself deliberately" is from 1728. In Anglo-Latin, the term for "one who commits suicide" was felo-de-se, literally "one guilty concerning himself."
Even in 1749, in the full blaze of the philosophic movement, we find a suicide named Portier dragged through the streets of Paris with his face to the ground, hung from a gallows by his feet, and then thrown into the sewers; and the laws were not abrogated till the Revolution, which, having founded so many other forms of freedom, accorded the liberty of death. [W.E.H. Lecky, "History of European Morals," 1869]
In England, suicides were legally criminal if of age and sane, but not if judged to have been mentally deranged. The criminal ones were mutilated by stake and given degrading burial in highways until 1823. Suicide blonde (one who has "dyed by her own hand") first attested 1921. Baseball suicide squeeze is attested from 1937.
suit (n.): c. 1300, sute, also suete, suite, seute, "a band of followers; a retinue, company;" also "set of matching garments" worn by such persons, "matching livery or uniform;" hence " kind, sort; the same kind, a match;" also "pursuit, chase," and in law, "obligation (of a tenant) to attend court; attendance at court," from Anglo-French suit, siwete, from Old French suite, sieute "pursuit, act of following, hunt; retinue; assembly" (12c., Modern French suite), from Vulgar Latin *sequita, fem. of *sequitus, from Latin secutus, past participle of sequi "to attend, follow" (see sequel).

Legal sense of "lawsuit; legal action" is from mid-14c. Meaning "the wooing of a woman" is from late 15c. Meaning "set of clothes to be worn together" is attested from late 14c., also "matching material or fabric," from notion of the livery or uniform of court attendants. As a derisive term for "businessman," it dates from 1979. Meaning "matched set of objects, number of objects of the same kind or pattern used together" is from late 14c., as is that of "row, series, sequence." Meaning "set of playing cards bearing the same symbol" is first attested 1520s, also ultimately from the notion of livery. To follow suit (1670s) is from card-playing: "play a card of the same suit first played," hence, figuratively, "continue the conduct of a predecessor."
suit (v.): "be agreeable or convenient, fall in with the views of," 1570s, from suit (n.), perhaps from the notion of "join a retinue clad in like clothes." Earlier "seek out" (mid-15c.); "be becoming" (mid-14c.). Meaning "make agreeable or convenient" is from 1590s. Meaning "provide with clothes" is from 1570s; that of "dress oneself" is from 1590s; with up (adv.) from 1945. Expression suit yourself attested by 1851. Related: Suited; suiting.
suitability (n.): 1680s, from suitable + -ity.
suitable (adj.): 1580s, from suit (v.) + -able. Earlier suit-like (1560s); suitly (mid-15c.). Related: Suitably; suitableness.
suitcase (n.): 1898, from suit (n.) + case (n.2). Originally a case for holding a suit of clothes. In reference to small nuclear weapons, 1954.
suite (n.): 1670s, "train of followers or attendants," from French suite, from Old French suite, sieute "act of following, attendance" (see suit (n.), which is an earlier borrowing of the same French word). The meanings "set of instrumental compositions" (1680s), "connected set of rooms" (1716), and "set of furniture" (1805) were imported from French usages or re-spelled on the French model from suit in its sense of "a number of things taken collectively and constituting a sequence; collection of things of like kind."
suitor (n.): c. 1300, "a frequenter;" late 14c., "follower, disciple," from Anglo-French seutor, suitor or directly from Late Latin secutor "follower, pursuer," from sect- past participle stem of sequi "to follow" (see suit (n.)). Meaning "plaintiff in a lawsuit" is from mid-15c. Meaning "one who seeks (a woman) in marriage" is from 1580s.
swimsuit (n.): also swim-suit, 1920, from swim + suit (n.).
unsuitable (adj.): 1590s, from un- (1) "not" + suitable (adj.). Related: Unsuitably; unsuitability.
unsuited (adj.): "unfit," 1590s, from un- (1) "not" + past participle of suit (v.).
zoot suit (n.): 1942, American English slang, the first element probably a nonsense reduplication of suit (compare reet pleat, drape shape from the same jargon).
jumpsuit: "A garment incorporating trousers and a sleeved top in one piece, worn as a fashion item, protective garment, or uniform", 1940s (originally US): so named because it was first used to denote a parachutist's garment.