tartan
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈtɑːt(ə)n/
ipa: /ˈtɑɹtn̩/
ipa: [-ɾn̩]
ipa: /ˈtɑɹt(ə)n/
ipa: /ˈtæɹ-/
homophone: Tartan
rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)tən
Forms: form: tartans
form: tartaning
form: tartaned
form: tartaned
Etymology: The noun is an unadapted borrowing from 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 (Tŭ́ros), from Phoenician 𐤑𐤓 (ṣr) or 𐤑𐤅𐤓 (ṣwr)) + -ius (suffix forming adjectives).
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 (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). However, the Oxford English Dictionary notes that tartarin referred to a more expensive fabric.
Noun sense 2.2 (“type of fly used in fly fishing”) may refer to its use in Scotland: see the 1837 quotation. Sense 2.3 (“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.
The adjective is from an attributive use of the noun, while the verb is also derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: That 42d tartan is Campbell tartan rests upon the fact that the Black Watch was officered by a large majority of Campbells at first. When I was first tartaned, more than fifty years ago, I was taken by John Campbell, piper, to the shop of his brother William, in Glasgow, to be tailored.
ref: 1881 July 5 (date written), Archibald Campbell, quoting John F. Campbell, “Notes on the Antiquity of the Dress, Clan Colours, or Tartans, of the Highlanders [Early Notices of Tartan]”, in Records of Argyll: Legends, Traditions, and Recollections of Argyllshire Highlanders […], Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1885, →OCLC, pages 441–442:
text: The Celtic Society of Edinburgh was founded in 1820, its members dining in kilts. In 1820–22, the novelist Walter Scott worked away at the tartaning of Scotland in the run-up to a landmark visit by George IV, when even the fat king would be wearing full Scottish tartan.
ref: 2015, Rodney Castleden, “The Nineteenth Century Viking Craze”, in Vikings: Raiders, Traders and Masters of the Sea, New York, N.Y.: Chartwell Books, Quarto Publishing Group, →ISBN, part 6 (The Lasting Legacy), pages 158–159:
text: Grandpa, tartaned to the max, larger than life, meekly trotted back to the car to let Grandma's familiar [a cat] out.
ref: 2016 September, Sally Odgers, The Peacock’s Pearl (Cat Mahal is Magic; 1), [Latrobe, Tas.]: Prints Charming Books, →ISBN, page 236:
text: When they entered the kitchen, Craig, who loved plaids and was wearing a plaid shirt, was amazed to find his host tartaned out in a plaid pattern that was repeated from head to foot: […]
ref: 2016 December 6, R[obert] J. R. Rockwood, “Only the Statues are Whole”, in The Primrose Path, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN:
glosses: To clothe (someone) in tartan (noun sense 1.2).
examples: text: The unholy beast in the box was the most splendid and graceful specimen of the monitor lizard I have ever seen. […] Smooth, though scaly, and inky black, tartaned all over with transverse rows of bright yellow spots, with eyes that shone like wild-fire, and teeth like quartz, with his forked tongue continually flashing out from his bright-red mouth, he had a wild, weird loveliness that was most uncanny.
ref: 1873 July 26, “Blue-jackets’ Pets”, in William and Robert Chambers, editors, Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Art, volume X (4th Series), number 500, London; Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers […], →OCLC, page 466, column 1:
text: [W]hy shouldn't the waitresses in the dining room, each one of them already attired in a distinctive clan tartan, be required to carry a small card identifying the tartan for the convenience of diners who might want to purchase tartaned gifts after their meal?
ref: 1992 spring, Ian McKay, quoting J. H. Macdonald, “Tartanism Triumphant: The Construction of Scottishness in Nova Scotia, 1933–1954”, in Acadiensis: Journal of the History of the Atlantic Region, volume 21, number 2, Fredericton, N.B.: Department of History, University of New Brunswick, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 Aug 2022, page 31:
glosses: To apply a tartan pattern to (something).
examples: text: The premier [Angus Lewis Macdonald] was photographed repeatedly at the annual Gaelic Mod, and sitting at a loom in a display of Highland handicrafts in Scotland itself. The premier also focused his attention on the tartaning of the provincially owned Keltic Lodge.
ref: 1992 spring, Ian McKay, “Tartanism Triumphant: The Construction of Scottishness in Nova Scotia, 1933–1954”, in Acadiensis: Journal of the History of the Atlantic Region, volume 21, number 2, Fredericton, N.B.: Department of History, University of New Brunswick, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 Aug 2022, page 31:
text: Hence, Edinburgh's working class has conventionally been doubly excluded and marginalised. […] [S]econdly, within a nationalist paradigm, by the ‘tartaning up’ of that same city centre – the concomitant tourist culture of Scotland as a national heritage site. The Edinburgh of romantic or puritanical nationalism myth has no imaginative or social space for an urban working class.
ref: 2005, Aaron Kelly, “Introduction: Irvine Welsh and the ‘Long Dark Night of Late Capitalism’”, in Irvine Welsh, Manchester; New York, N.Y.: Manchester University Press, →ISBN, page 28:
glosses: To make (something) Scottish, or more Scottish; to tartanize.
Derived terms: word: tartaned