kilt

Meanings

Verb

• To gather up (skirts) around the body.
• : Past of kill.

Noun

• A traditional Scottish garment, usually worn by men, having roughly the same morphology as a wrap-around skirt, with overlapping front aprons and pleated around the sides and back, and usually made of twill-woven worsted wool with a tartan pattern.
• Any Scottish garment from which the above lies in a direct line of descent, such as the philibeg, or the great kilt or belted plaid
• A plaid, pleated school uniform skirt sometimes structured as a wrap around, sometimes pleated throughout the entire circumference; also used as boys' wear in 19^th century USA.
• A variety of non-bifurcated garments made for men and loosely resembling a Scottish kilt, but most often made from different fabrics and not always with tartan plaid designs.

Related

Similar words

• filibeg, philibeg

Origin

• From Middle English kilten, apparently of North Germanic origin, ultimately from Old Norse kelta, kjalta. Perhaps from Proto-Germanic *kelt-, *kelþǭ, *kilþį̄, from Proto-Indo-European *gelt-. Cognate with Danish kilte, Swedish kilta. Related to English child.
• kill + -t