Other forms: kirtles
A kirtle is a long gown worn in earlier centuries. A woollen kirtle, wear a kirtle, the kirtle and the smock.
It was the main garment worn over a smock and under an outer gown, so it was the working dress of most women for centuries. The word survives only in historical writing and in reenactment.
1nounkirtleA long gown worn in earlier centuries.
“In the play, the peasant girl wore a simple woollen kirtle and a white apron.”
kirtle is a gown.
Old English cyrtel names a tunic, with cognates across the Scandinavian languages.
Latin
curtus — short, shortened
Old Norse
*kurtil-
Old English
cyrtel
Middle English
kirtel
English, today
kirtle
From Middle English kirtel, from Old English cyrtel, cognate with Old Norse kyrtill (“tunic”) (whence Icelandic kyrtill, Danish kjortel (“gown, tunic”), Swedish kjortel (“petticoat, skirt”)), from Old Norse kurtil-, supposedly a diminutive of kurt-, from Latin curtus (“short, shortened”). Compare German Kittel.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA