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kilt

UK/kɪlt/US/kɪlt/
nounB1+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,963 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: kilts

A kilt is a pleated checked skirt worn by Scottish men. Wear a kilt, a tartan kilt, hire a kilt.

It is formal dress rather than everyday clothing now, worn at weddings and at games. A full one takes several metres of cloth, pleated to the pattern at the back and flat at the front. Regiments wore them into battle until the First World War.

Georg Cöler · Public domain

Definitions of kilt

  1. 1nounkiltA pleated checked skirt worn by Scottish men.B1+

    “The groom wore a kilt in his family's tartan at the wedding.”

kilt is a garment.

Where it comes from

From an old verb kilt, to tuck up, from a Norse word for a skirt or lap.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *gelt- — round body; child

  2. Proto-Germanic

    *kelt-

  3. Old Norse

    kelta

  4. Middle English

    kilten — to tuck up, gird

  5. English, today

    kilt

Built from

  • kjalta · Old Norse — skirt; lap
  • *kilþį̄ · Proto-Germanic — womb

From Middle English kilten (“to tuck up, gird”), apparently from gmq, ultimately from Old Norse kelta, kjalta (“skirt; lap”). Perhaps from Proto-Germanic kelt-, kelþǭ, kilþį̄ (“womb”), from Proto-Indo-European gelt- (“round body; child”). Cognate with Danish kilte (“to tuck”), Swedish kilta (“to swathe”). Related to English child.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Clothes & Fashion

Practise this word

kilt in the wild

  • The small kilt or modern kilt emerged in the 18th century, and is essentially the bottom half of the great kilt.

    Kilt

  • The sporran (; Scottish Gaelic for 'purse'), a traditional part of male Scottish Highland dress, is a pouch that functions as a pocket for the kilt.

    Sporran

  • Since the traditional kilt does not have pockets, the sporran serves as a wallet and container for any other necessary personal items.

    Sporran

  • Men's Highland dress typically includes a kilt or trews.

    Highland dress

  • Traditionally, women and girls do not wear kilts but may wear ankle-length tartan skirts, along with a colour-coordinated blouse and vest.

    Highland dress

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.