So, this phrase recently came tumbling out of the mouth of one of my characters and I had to chase it down. It should come as no surprise that the expression ‘cut from the same cloth’ comes from the world of tailoring. Back when all clothing was handmade, fabric was purchased in long pieces called bolts. A tailor would measure carefully and cut garments from the material with as little waste as possible. If two coats were cut from the same bolt of cloth, they would share the same color, texture, and durability. The garments might be styled differently, but the material itself connected them. Over time, the physical idea became a metaphor for shared traits in people.

Scholars believe the figurative expression began appearing in the late nineteenth century, when tailoring metaphors were common in everyday speech. Pinning down the exact first use of any idiom can be tricky, but written examples appear in the early twentieth century. One early literary use appears in 1914 in Julian Hawthorne’s work The Subterranean Brotherhood, which includes the phrase “woven out of the same yarn and cut from the same cloth.”

Modern dictionaries define the idiom as meaning very similar in character, attitudes, or behavior. “Cut from the same cloth” suggests that what lies beneath the surface matters. Just as the quality of fabric affects the finished garment, background often shapes behavior. The phrase reminds us that character rarely appears by accident.

All of which is very well and good, but it puts the expression out of ‘fair range’ for all of the Dragon Books, which annoys me to no end. I might be able to get away with it for my World Wrights, though. I suppose that’s something.

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Cambridge Dictionary. 2026. “Be Cut from the Same Cloth.” https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/be-cut-from-the-same-cloth. (Cambridge Dictionary)

Hawthorne, Julian. 1914. The Subterranean Brotherhood. Example cited in Wiktionary. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cut_from_the_same_cloth. (Wiktionary)

Heacock, Paul. 2010. Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms. Referenced via Idioms Online. https://www.idioms.online/cut-from-the-same-cloth/. (Idioms)

Idiom Origins. 2024. “Cut from the Same Cloth.” https://idiomorigins.org/origin/cut-from-the-same-cloth. (Idiom Origins)

Vocabulary.com. 2026. “Cut from the Same Cloth.” https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/cut%20from%20the%20same%20cloth. (vocabulary.com)