A shift dress is a type of woman's dress. But what is the etymology of the word shift in this sense? Did shift simply mean "shirt" at some point?
The earliest quote from the OED which has shift in this meaning is:
1957 M. B. Picken Fashion Dict. 293/1 Shift,..loose dress hanging
straight from shoulders, with fulness closely belted at waistline.
Best Answer
The way OED is laid out gives some idea.
Thus it's possible to see how the original meaning of underwear came to be called a shift — the garment is changed regularly.
OED has a note:
It is certainly the case that 10.b, "A straight loose dress," only dates from 1957. But the straight, simple shape of that shift is not dissimilar to the simple shift of the fifteenth century. It's not so much a direct descendant etymologically, more named by analogy.