Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Kilt |
KiltNoun1. A knee-length pleated tartan skirt; worn by men in Scottish Highlands. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "kilt" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1550. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | KILT, n. A costume sometimes worn by Scotchmen in America and Americans in Scotland. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The kilt is an item of traditional Scottish Highland dress. Nowadays most Scotsmen see it as formal dress. It is generally worn only at weddings or other formal occasions, although there are still a few people who wear it daily.
Originally a length of woollen tartan cloth 1.5 m in width and up to 5 m in length. Worn as a cloak, over the left shoulder with a wide belt, this was the 'great kilt', the Feileadh Bhreacain or Feileadh Mor. The great kilt was an untailored draped garment made of cloth gathered up into pleats by hand and secured by the belt. The age of the great kilt is hotly debated but it certainly existed at the beginning of the 17th century.
Belted plaid ~1670 After the unrest of the 18th century, the kilt, along with other features of Gaelic culture became identified with the Jacobites. As a result the Dress Act of 1747 made it illegal to wear the kilt in Scotland; the law was repealed in 1783. An exception was made in the years following 1747 to allow the kilt to be worn in the military -- made to try to increase recruitment into the army and placate the Highlanders at a time when the British government could ill afford another civil war with the Highlands of Scotland.
The popularity of the current garment is largely due to the Highland romantic revival orchestrated by Sir Walter Scott for the visit of George IV to Edinburgh at the beginning of the 19th century. The modern kilt is often confused with the Leine Croich, a knee-length shirt of leather, linen or canvas, heavily pleated and sometimes quilted as protection. However it is really more like the Feileadh Beag, or little kilt, made with half the width of material of the 'great kilt', designed for military wear and so made of tartan or tweed cloth, box-pleated or knife-pleated (with pleats sewn in to speed the donning of the kilt) with the lower edges reaching not lower than the centre of the knee-cap. It dates from around the mid-18th Century, replacing the simpler belted plaid. The kilt is traditionally for men only, although in the modern era, long women's dresses patterned after kilts do exist, and women pipers frequently wear kilts. Kilten skirts for girls are also worn.
Traditionally, what a Scotsman wears under his kilt is his own business and generally, Scotsmen will be at pains to keep it so. Thus any reply to such a question may hint at the answer but should never state it outright. A good standard reply when asked, is that, "Nothing is worn under the kilt. It's all in perfect working order".
Further Reading:
- http://albanach.org/kilt.html
- http://www.majestictech.com/the-celtic-net/kilthistory.html
- http://www.reconstructinghistory.com/kilts/kilts.htm
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Kilt."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Clothing | Acket, vest, jerkin, waistcoat, doublet, camisole, gabardine; kilt, jupe, crinoline, bustle, panier, skirt, apron, pinafore; bloomer, bloomers; chaqueta, songtag, tablier. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Kilt |
| English words defined with "kilt": Filibeg, Fillibeg ♦ Highlands ♦ Kilted, Kilting ♦ sporran. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "kilt": kelter. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Kilt" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Czech (kilt), Dutch (kilt), French (kilt), German (kilt), Hungarian (filibeg), Italian (kilt), Serbo-Croatian (filibeg, kilt), Swedish (filibeg, kilt), Turkmen (bolt, catch). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Sandy's New Kilt (1912) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | Nobody kilt him. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Kilt" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 95.12% of the time. "Kilt" is used about 82 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 95.12% | 78 | 37,656 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 2.44% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Noun (proper) | 2.44% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 82 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "kilt": kilt-deep. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
kilt | 1,014 | irish kilt | 11 |
100.3 kilt | 106 | 100 fm kilt | 11 |
kilt rental | 49 | 100.3 fm kilt | 10 |
kilt radio | 43 | kilt hire | 10 |
scottish kilt | 36 | kilt picture | 9 |
under the kilt | 34 | kilt maker uk | 9 |
houston kilt | 33 | man kilt | 9 |
kilt up | 26 | kilt jacket | 9 |
kilt pattern | 22 | flashing kilt | 8 |
kilt pin | 22 | kilt wearing | 8 |
kilt maker | 21 | 100 kilt | 8 |
kilt make | 17 | kilt utility | 8 |
kilt radio station | 14 | hire kilt uk | 8 |
kilt sport | 14 | kilt hose | 8 |
610 kilt | 13 | mini kilt | 7 |
kilt wear | 13 | kilt tilted | 7 |
kilt making | 12 | history kilt | 7 |
great kilt | 12 | för karl kilt sin | 7 |
kilt fm | 11 | tartan kilt | 6 |
kilt belt | 11 | irish kilt rental | 6 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "kilt"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | ngre (boost, build up, carve, cast up, chant, elevate, erect, establish, heft, heighten, hike, hitch, hoist, hold up, jerk up, lift, lift up, look up, move up, peak, pick up, propound, raise, rear, rebel, revolt, ring up, rout, run up, scoop up, set up, situate, soar, Square, straighten, take off, throw up, trice, up, upheave, uplift, upraise, wake up, weigh, wind up), mbledh (accumulate, add, add together, assemble, bank, brush up, call in, call together, cast, cast up, clench, collate, collect, compile, compress, congregate, convene, convoke, draw, dredge, drum up, focus, fold, fund, furl, gather, get together, group, herd, impound, levy, lift, make up, pack, pick, pick off, pick up, pool, rally, reap, round up, scoop up, shut, sweep, take, total, totalize), fustanellë. (various references) | |
Arabic | تنورة (loins, skirt), زود بتنورة, الكلتية تنورة اسكتلندية. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | фустанела (filibeg, petticoat), надиплям (enfold, fold, lap, pleat, quill, ruck, ruffle), запретвам (tuck up), плисирам (plait, pleat). (various references) | |
Chinese | 苏 兰""短裙. (various references) | |
Czech | kilt. (various references) | |
Dutch | Schotse rok, kilt. (various references) | |
Esperanto | kilto. (various references) | |
Farsi | جامه چین دار, دامن مردانه , بکمرزدن , بالازدن . (various references) | |
French | kilt, donner un kilt. (various references) | |
German | schottenrock (tartan skirt). (various references) | |
Greek | σκοτσέζικη φούστα, φούστα σκωτζέζικη, φουστανέλα σκώτου. (various references) | |
Hebrew | שמל ית סקוטית, חצאית סקוטית. (various references) | |
Hungarian | skót szoknya. (various references) | |
Italian | kilt. (various references) | |
Manx | fillee beg. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | iltkay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | saiote escocês, preguear (frill, gather, goffer, plait, pleat, pucker, ruck, ruckle, ruffle, shirr), franzir (corrugate, full, furrow, plait, pucker, quill, ruck, ruckle, shirr, wrinkle). (various references) | |
Romanian | fustanelã. (various references) | |
Russian | юбка шотландского горца, юбка в складку, юбка (skirt), подбирать (assort, filibeg, hand-pick, pick, pick up, tuck up). (various references) | |
Scottish | féileadh (the kilt : am féileadh beag), féile, féileadh (a kilt). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | kilt (filibeg), nositi kilt. (various references) | |
Spanish | falda escocesa. (various references) | |
Swedish | kilt (filibeg). (various references) | |
Turkish | pli yapmak (crease, flute, plait, pleat), iskoç eteği. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | спідниця шотландського горянина, кілт, клетчата спідниця в складку, збирати к складки, легко рухатися, підтикати поділ. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "kilt": kilted, kilter, kilters, kiltie, kilties, kilting, kiltings, kilts, kilty. (additional references) | |
| |
"Kilt" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: cilt, ciltt, Ikat, Ikot, ilt, kal, kalb, kald, kalt, kalv, kazt, keilt, kelg, Kellti, Kelty, kiat, kibl, kidt, kift, kil, kild, kilg, kili, kilj, killi, kilm, kilty, kiltz, kily, kiml, kint, kiot, kirt, kiut, kli, klia, klic, Klik, klit, klitz, knitl, koldt, kolf, kolt, kuilt, kulit, kult, kyl. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "kilt" (pronounced ki"lt) |
| 3 | -i" l t | built, gilt, guilt, hilt, jilt, lilt, Milt, overbuilt, quilt, rebuilt, silt, spilt, stilt, tilt, unbuilt, wilt. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "i-k-l-t" | |
-1 letter: ilk, kit, lit, til. | |
-2 letters: it, li, ti. | |
| Words containing the letters "i-k-l-t" | |
+1 letter: kilts, kilty, tilak. | |
+2 letters: kilted, kilter, kiltie, kirtle, kittel, kittle, likest, likuta, skylit, talkie, tickle, tilaks, tinkle, tinkly. | |
+3 letters: antlike, backlit, batlike, catlike, fatlike, flokati, glaiket, glaikit, gutlike, hatlike, hutlike, inkblot, jetlike, keitloa, kilobit, kiloton, kilters, kilties, kilting, kinglet, kirtled, kirtles, kistful, kitling, kittled, kittler, kittles, klister, lakiest, latakia, lekythi, lentisk, netlike, nutlike, oatlike, outkill, potlike, ratlike, skelpit, skillet, skittle, sleekit, stickle, tackily, taglike, talkier, talkies, talking, tealike, thickly, tickled, tickler, tickles, tinkled, tinkler, tinkles, tinlike, titlark, toelike, toylike, trickle, trickly, tublike, twinkle, twinkly. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Quotations: Fiction 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions | 9. Expressions: Internet 10. Translations: Modern 11. Derivations 12. Rhymes | 13. Anagrams 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
