kirtle
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
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.
Inflected forms:
form: kirtles
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: kirtles
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: kirtling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: kirtled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: kirtled
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A knee-length tunic.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
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.
Many of the church dignitaries are distinguishable by peculiarities of dress, as the shovel hat and kirtle.
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.
gloss: A short jacket.
pos: noun
examples: KIRTLE, […] a Sort of ſhort Jacket.
A man's jacket was also called a kirtle.
gloss: A woman's gown; a woman's outer petticoat or skirt.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle / Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;
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: […]
[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.
Around his waist was a kind of kirtle, the skin of some animal.
Janet tied her kirtle green, / Above her knee and not below / And she's gone to Carterhaugh / just as fast as she can go
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.
gloss: To clothe or cover with, or as if with, a kirtle; to hitch up (a long garment) to the length of a kirtle.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Eastward the Night / Climbs slow with hooded brows, and languid Day / Kirtles her robe fantastical, and leans / To take the embrace of darkness.
Father Fogen led the way, his skinny shanks a gleaming white as he kirtled his cassock about his thighs. I was obliged to do the same, for the hillside above the house was thick with grass and thorny shrubs that caught at the coarse wool skirts of my borrowed robe.
I didn't kirtle my skirts above my knees. I'm not wearing breeches beneath my habit, though without a doubt they'd be warmer than my stockings.
Kirtling her skirts for freedom of movement, she accelerated to full speed and headed for the road, hoping to reach the relative safety of the village.
Derived words: half-kirtle
Translations: