Figure 1.--.
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Figure 1.--. |
Some of the terms associated with kilts are confusing. Some have assumed a different meaning in popular usage han the original meaning. This is in part because the kilt has evolved from a Medieval garment and many Medieval clothing terms are confusing and have varied along time perspectives, cultures, and geography as well as uses in various foreign languages. Here the most important words associated with the Scottish kilt ar plaid and tartan.
The Scots generally refer to the pattern of the fabric as "tartan", not to be
confused with the word "plaid". Plaid does not mean in Gaelic what it does is English.
Plaide in Gaelic means a blanket. In some Middle English quotations, plaid is used as a verb, meaning "to pleat". Therefore, a "plaid" refers to a blanket or something that is
pleated, not the striped material associated with the Highland Scots. The Gaelic word for
plaid as we know it is breacán. This can mean speckled, dappled, striped and spotted as
well as "plaid or the belted coloured fabric we are used to.
The second word we must define is "tartan". This also does not refer in any way to a colour or pattern. Tartan, from the French " tiretaine ', indicates a kind of cloth irrespective of its colour and it is taken to mean a type of light wool. Tartan also referred to a silk/wool blend. The term tartan has during our time in Scotland as the pattern of the fabrics colour. The Plaid (pronounced played) is the portion of matching tartan fabric that rests over the shoulder and held in place by a decorative pin. The Kilts of the 1700s were a single piece of wool fabric, six or so yards, that wrapped around the person about five times belted or knotted at the waste and the rest thrown over the shoulder. These were called after the Irish term for "Five-folding" and has also been rendered as "wrapped five times". The Irish word used here, " filleadh " is also used in the word for kilt, " filleadh beag ".
Dunbar, J. Telfer. History of Highland Dress (Philadelphia: Dufour Editions, 1964).
Glen, Duncan, ed. Whither Scotland? (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1971).
Grimble, Jan. Scottish Clans and Tartans. (New York: Tudor Publishing Co., 1973).
McClintock, Henry Foster. Old Irish and Highland Dress. Dundalk: Dundalgan Press, 1943.
McGann, Kass. The Evolution of the Kilt.
Morris, Robert. E-mail message, September 9, 2003.
Norris, Herbert. Costume and Fashion: The Evolution of European Dress
through the Earlier Ages (London: J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., 1924).
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