also bath-robe, "robe worn before or after taking a bath," 1894, from bath (n.) + robe (n.).
Entries linking to bathrobe
bath n.
Old English bæð "an immersing of the body in water, mud, etc.," also "a quantity of water, etc., for bathing," from Proto-Germanic *badan (source also of Old Frisian beth, Old Saxon bath, Old Norse bað, Middle Dutch bat, German Bad), from PIE root *bhē- "to warm" + *-thuz, Germanic suffix indicating "act, process, condition" (as in birth, death). The etymological sense is of heating, not immersing.
The city in Somerset, England (Old English Baðun) was so called from its hot springs. Bath salts is attested from 1875 (Dr. Julius Braun, "On the Curative Effects of Baths and Waters"). Bath-house is from 1705; bath-towel is from 1958.
robe n.
"long, loose outer garment reaching almost to the floor, worn by men or women over other dress," late 13c., from Old French robe "long, loose outer garment" (12c.), from a Germanic source (compare Old High German rouba "vestments"), from West Germanic *raubo "booty" (cognate with Old High German roub "robbery, breakage"), which also yielded rob (v.).
Presumably the notion is of fine garments taken from an enemy as spoil, and the Old French word had a secondary sense of "plunder, booty," while Germanic cognates had both senses; as in Old English reaf "plunder, booty, spoil; garment, armor, vestment."
The meaning "dressing gown" is from 1854; such extended senses often appear first in French, e.g. robe de chambre "dressing gown," robe de nuit "nightgown." From c. 1300 in reference to official vestments and thus indicative of position or membership in a religious order, guild, etc.; metonymic sense of The Robe for "the legal profession" is attested from 1640s.