shirt

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ʃɜːt/, US /ʃɝːt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English shirte, shurte,^[2][3] inherited from Old English scyrte,^[4][2] from Proto-Germanic *skurtjon (“a short garment”),^[4] the source also of Old Norse skyrta “shirt”, Middle Dutch scorte and German Schürze “apron”,^[4][2][5] perhaps related to Old English scort “short”,^[4][2][6] from Proto-Indo-European *sker- (“to cut”), on the notion of “a cut piece”.^[4][3] It is a doublet of skirt, which came from Old Norse.^[2][7] Lithuanian šarkas “shirt” and Russian soročka are perhaps from Germanic.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English scyrte, before 1000;^[2][8] the OED notes that its meaning there is obscure, since it occurs only once, in a gloss.^[4] Middle English shurte, an undergarment for the upper body worn next to the skin, probably before 1200.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It was formerly the chief undergarment of both men and women, but long only of men;^[4][8] for women's tops it was reintroduced in 1896.^[4] Since the late 14th century the shirt has often stood for one's possessions,^[4] hence the shirt off one's back (1771),^[4] to lose one's shirt, to suffer total financial loss (1935),^[4] and to put one's shirt on a bet.^[7] The bloody shirt, displayed to arouse indignation, is from the 1580s.^[4][8] Keep your shirt on, “be patient”, from the mid-19th century,^[7] or 1904,^[4] comes from taking off one's shirt for a fight,^[4][7] as does shirty, “bad-tempered”.^[7][5] A shirt of a particular colour as the badge of a political party is from 1864.^[8]

Timeline

• a. 1000 – Old English scyrte.^[2][8]
• c. 1200 – an undergarment.^[2]
• 1580s – bloody shirt.^[4]
• 1771 – the shirt off one's back.^[4]
• 1864 – a party's coloured shirt.^[8]
• 1896 – a woman's shirt.^[4]
• 1935 – lose one's shirt.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A garment for the upper body, usually with a collar, sleeves and buttons down the front.
2. An undershirt.
3. A nightshirt.

Word family

• shirtless
• shirtband
• overshirt
• redshirt
• shirtdress
• shirtfront
• shirtmaker

Related words

• skirt
• short
• shirty
• shirtsleeve

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press