kirtle
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkəːt(ə)l/
ipa: /ˈkɜː(ɹ)-/
ipa: /ˈkɚt(ə)l/
ipa: /-ɾ(ə)l/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)təl
Forms: form: kirtles
Etymology: 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.
Senses: examples: text: All in a kirtle of diſcolourd ſay / He clothed was, ypaynted full of eies; / And in his boſome ſecretly there lay / An hatefull Snake, the which his taile vptyes / In many folds, and mortall ſting implyes.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 31, pages 53–54:
text: Few words have occasioned such controversy among the commentators on our old plays, as this; and all for want of knowing that it is used in a two-fold sense, sometimes for the jacket merely, and sometimes for the train or upper petticoat attached to it. A full kirtle was always a jacket and petticoat, a half kirtle (a term which frequently occurs) was either the one or the other; but our ancestors, who wrote when this article of dress was every where in use, and when there was little danger of being misunderstood, most commonly contented themselves with the simple term, (kirtle,) leaving the sense to be gathered from the context.
ref: 1816, Ben Jonson, “Cynthia’s Revels: Or, The Fountain of Self-love”, in W[illiam] Gifford, editor, The Works of Ben Jonson, in Nine Volumes. With Notes Critical and Explanatory, and a Biographical Memoir, by W. Gifford, Esq., volume II (Containing Every Man Out of His Humour. Cynthia's Revels. The Poetaster.), London: Printed for G. and W. Nicol [et al.]; by W[illiam] Bulmer and Co., Cleveland-row, St. James's, →OCLC, act II, scene i, page 260, footnote 5:
text: Many of the church dignitaries are distinguishable by peculiarities of dress, as the shovel hat and kirtle.
ref: 1832, “the original editor” [pseudonym; John Wade], “Church of England”, in The Extraordinary Black Book: An Exposition of Abuses in Church and State, Courts of Law, Representation, Municipal and Corporate Bodies; with a Précis of the House of Commons, Past, Present, and to Come, new edition, London: Published by Effingham Wilson, Royal Exchange, →OCLC, section III (Sinecurism.—Non-residence.—Pluralities.—Church Discipline), page 33:
text: Her eyes were large, and full of light, / Her arms and neck were bare; / No garment she wore save a kirtle bright, / And her own long, raven hair.
ref: 1842, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Quadroon Girl”, in Voices of the Night; and Other Poems, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, published 1852, →OCLC, page 98:
glosses: A knee-length tunic.
examples: text: KIRTLE, […] a Sort of ſhort Jacket.
ref: [1721, N[athan] Bailey, “KIRTLE”, in An Universal Etymological English Dictionary: […], London: […] E. Bell, J. Darby, […], →OCLC, column 1:
text: A man's jacket was also called a kirtle.
ref: 1816, Ben Jonson, “Cynthia’s Revels: Or, The Fountain of Self-love”, in W[illiam] Gifford, editor, The Works of Ben Jonson, in Nine Volumes. With Notes Critical and Explanatory, and a Biographical Memoir, by W. Gifford, Esq., volume II (Containing Every Man Out of His Humour. Cynthia's Revels. The Poetaster.), London: Printed for G. and W. Nicol [et al.]; by W[illiam] Bulmer and Co., Cleveland-row, St. James's, →OCLC, act II, scene i, page 260, footnote 5:
glosses: A short jacket.
examples: text: Per[igot] VVell decked in a frocke of gray, / Wil[ly] hey ho, gray is greet, / Per. And in a kirtle of green ſay, / [Wil.] the greene is for maydens meet.
ref: 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC:
text: A cap of flowers, and a kirtle / Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;
ref: c. 1587, Christopher Marlowe, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love:
text: Dol[l Tearsheet] I loue thee better than I loue thee, ere a ſcuruy yong boy of them all. / Fal[staff] What ſtuffe wilt haue a kirtle of? I ſhall receiue mony a thurſday, ſhalt haue a cap to morrow: […]
ref: c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:
text: [Y]ou must cut these fine tresses close by your ears, your rich kirtle close by the knee: you must bear my bow and carry my arrows, ay, and be ready at once to go to the greenwood with one for whose head much gold is offered.
ref: 1839 January 19, A. C., “English Romantic Ballads. No. VI. The Spanish Lady’s Love.—The Nut-brown Maid.”, in The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, volume VIII, number 436, London: Charles Knight & Co., 22, Ludgate Street, →OCLC, page 19, column 1:
text: Around his waist was a kind of kirtle, the skin of some animal.
ref: 1970, Larry Niven, Ringworld, page 260:
text: Janet tied her kirtle green, / Above her knee and not below / And she's gone to Carterhaugh / just as fast as she can go
ref: 2009, Tricky Pixie: Tam Lin, on: Mythcreants (music album)
text: Women, like men, also typically wore three layers of clothing. Women's underclothing consisted of a smock or chemise and hose. Next came a kirtle, a long garment originally with short or no sleeves, worn over the smock, chemise, and hose. Over time, kirtles became increasingly fitted, with ever-lengthening sleeves. Over kirtles, women wore a variety of outer tunics, such as the houppelande, or a sleeveless tabard or pelisse.
ref: 2013, Katherine L. French, “Genders and Material Culture”, in Judith M[acKenzie] Bennett, Ruth Mazo Karras, editors, The Oxford Handbook of Women and Gender in Medieval Europe, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 199:
glosses: A woman's gown; a woman's outer petticoat or skirt.
Derived terms: half-kirtle