kilt

Etymology

The word was first a verb, inherited from Middle English kilten (“to tuck up, gird”),^[2][3][4][5] apparently of Scandinavian origin.^{[6][3][7][8][9]} The dictionaries compare Danish kilte (“to tuck up”), dialectal Swedish kilta (“to swathe, swaddle”), and Old Norse kilting (“skirt”) and kjalta (“lap; fold made by gathering up a dress”).^{[6][7][5][10]} Dictionary.com is more cautious and calls the Scandinavian source only possible.^[11] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Partridge take the group as perhaps related to Gothic 𐌺𐌹𐌻𐌸𐌴𐌹 (kilþei, “womb”) and so to child,^[3][12] and Wiktionary tentatively traces it to Proto-Germanic *kelt- and Proto-Indo-European *gelt- (“round body; child”).^[1][13] The noun, the Highland garment, is formed from the verb.^[6][7][5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To gird up, or to tuck up skirts round the body: before 1340, in Richard Rolle's Psalter.^[6][2] Barnhart dates the Middle English verb to about 1340.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The verb survived mainly in Scots and northern English.^[4][3] Gavin Douglas's Scots Aeneid (1513) describes Venus with her skirt "kiltit till hir bair kne".^[14][5] From the late 17th century it could also mean to tie or hoist up, and so to string up or hang,^[6] and Walter Scott used it intransitively in 1816 for moving lightly and quickly, as if with the skirts tucked up.^[6] The noun appears in the 18th century: Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date it to about 1730, at first in the form quelt,^[4][3] and the current OED's first quotation is an Act of Parliament of 1746.^[6][5] It first named the part of the belted plaid that hung below the waist,^[4][5] and Weekley notes that it became the name of the Highland garment only in the 18th century.^[14] A verb sense "to gather in vertical pleats, as in a kilt" followed in 1887.^[6] The noun has since been extended to similar skirts worn by women and children.^[7][3] In the 19th century the Scots and northern English dialects still used the verb for a woman tucking up her skirts or rolling up her sleeves.^[15]

Timeline

• before 1340 – to tuck up the skirts round the body, to gird up.^[6][2]
• before 1689 – to fasten or hoist up; to string up, hang.^[6]
• c. 1730 – noun, the skirt of the Highland dress, at first as quelt.^[4][3][16] The current OED's first quotation is from 1746.^[6]
• 1816 – intransitive, to move lightly and quickly.^[6]
• 1887 – to gather in vertical pleats.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A knee-length pleated skirt, usually of tartan, worn by men as part of Scottish Highland dress and by Scottish regiments: The piper wore a kilt in the clan tartan.^[9][3][8][6]
2. A similar skirt worn by women, girls or boys.^[8][3][7]

Verb

1. To tuck up (a skirt) around the body; chiefly dialectal: She kilted her skirt to wade the burn.^[9][3][8][6]
2. To gather (cloth) in vertical pleats.^[9][17][6]
3. To dress (someone) in a kilt.^[3]
4. (archaic) To string up; to hang.^[3][17][6]
5. (archaic) To move quickly and lightly.^[3][17][6]

Word family

• kiltlike
• kilted

Usage notes

A different kilt, meaning "killed", is an old or dialectal past participle of kill;^[16] Johnson recorded it from Spenser,^[18] and in Irish English it is used for someone hurt or worn out.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
17. ^ a b c The Chambers Dictionary (2008), 11th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap
18. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
19. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com