Other forms: tartans
A tartan is a checked pattern belonging to a Scottish clan. The Stewart tartan, wear the tartan, a tartan scarf.
The idea that each clan has always had its own is largely a nineteenth-century invention, tidied up after George the Fourth's visit to Edinburgh in 1822 — before that a tartan was a local weaver's pattern rather than a family badge. The patterns are now registered.
1nountartanA checked pattern belonging to a Scottish clan.
“He wore a kilt in his family's red and green tartan.”
tartan is a pattern.
Probably from Old French tiretaine, a cloth of mixed wool, through Old Scots tartane.
Scots
tartan
English, today
tartan
Built from
The noun is an Scots tartan, from Old Scots tartane, tertane, probably from Old French tertaine, tiretaine (“cloth of wool mixed with cotton or linen”), probably from tiret (“kind of precious cloth”) + -aine modelled after futaine (“woven cloth made from cotton mixed with linen or silk”). Tiret is derived from tire (“kind of silk cloth”), from Medieval Latin tyrium (“cloth dyed with Tyrian purple”), a noun use of Latin tyrium, an inflection of tyrius (“of Tyre, Tyrian”), from Latin Tyrus (“Phoenician city of Tyre (in modern Lebanon)”) (from Ancient Greek Τῠ́ρος, from phn 𐤑𐤓) + -ius. Another suggestion is that the Scots noun is from Middle English tartaryn (“rich cloth (probably silk) imported from the East, probably from China through Tartary”), from Old French (drap) tartarin literally “cloth of Tartary”, from Medieval Latin Tartarīnus (“of Tartary or the Tatars”), from Latin Tartarus, Tatarus (“Tatar person”) + -īnus. However, the Oxford English Dictionary notes that tartarin referred to a more expensive fabric. Noun fishing fly (“type of fly used in fly fishing”) may refer to its use in Scotland: see the 1837 quotation. gang member (“young person who is a member of a Protestant gang in Northern Ireland”) is from the fact that they were traditionally supporters of Rangers Football Club based in Glasgow, Scotland.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA