Kilt Meaning: Where the Word Comes From

The word kilt means a knee-length, pleated garment of wool cloth, usually tartan, worn as part of Scottish Highland dress. It comes from an old Scots and English verb, "to kilt", which meant to tuck up your clothes around your body. That verb most likely came from Scandinavian languages, and goes back to the Old Norse word kjalta, meaning a lap or a fold of gathered cloth.

So the name describes exactly what the garment does: it is cloth that is gathered, folded and tucked around you. This page is all about the word: where it came from, how its meaning changed, what the Gaelic names mean and the other kilt words you might hear. The kilt as a garment, with its parts and history, is a bigger story than the word alone.

What Does the Word Kilt Mean Today?

In everyday English, "kilt" has two closely related meanings:

• The Scottish kilt: a knee-length wrap of pleated tartan, worn by men in Scotland and by Scottish regiments, and now by many women too.
• Any garment that looks like one: utility kilts, sports kilts, fashion kilts and kilt-style skirts all borrow the name.

There is also an older meaning that most people have forgotten. As a verb, to kilt means to tuck up a skirt or coat, or to fold cloth into pleats. Dressmakers still talk about "kilt pleats", meaning deep, overlapping folds that all face the same way.

Where Does the Word Kilt Come From?

The word started life as a verb, not a noun. In Middle English, kilten meant "to tuck up" or "to gird", and it was in use by the middle of the 1300s. People would kilt up their long clothes before working, walking through mud or crossing a stream, so the hem stayed out of the way.

Language experts agree the word is Scandinavian in origin. Danish still has kilte op ("to tuck up") and Swedish has kilta. Both point back to the Old Norse kjalta, which meant a lap or the fold made when you gather a skirt up to your knees. The Vikings settled across northern Britain, and many of their words stayed behind in Scots and northern English.

The verb reached Scots later than English. The Dictionary of the Scots Language records "kilt" meaning "to tuck up" in Scotland from 1513.

When Did "Kilt" Become the Name of a Garment?

For hundreds of years, "kilt" was only something you did to your clothes. It became the name of a garment in the 1700s. Merriam-Webster dates the first known use of the noun to around 1730, and some historians point to records from the 1740s. Either way, it lines up with the time the small kilt was spreading across the Highlands.

That timing makes sense. Before then, Highlanders wore the great kilt, a huge length of cloth belted around the body, and English writers usually called it a "plaid". Once the shorter, tucked and pleated garment became common, the old verb for tucking up cloth gave it a name. The great kilt came first, and the question of who invented the kilt in its shorter form is still argued about.

What Is the Gaelic Word for Kilt?

In Scottish Gaelic, the kilt is the fèileadh (said roughly "FAY-luh"). The word means a fold or a wrap. Gaelic dictionaries trace it back to Old Irish fíal, meaning a veil, which came from the Latin vēlum, a curtain or covering.

Gaelic uses this word to name both kinds of kilt:

• Fèileadh mòr means "great wrap". This is the great kilt or belted plaid of the 1500s to 1700s.
• Fèileadh beag means "little wrap". This is the small kilt, the direct ancestor of the kilt you buy today.
• Breacan an fhèilidh means "tartan wrap", another old name for the belted plaid. Breacan is the Gaelic word for tartan cloth.

English speakers struggled with the Gaelic spelling, so fèileadh beag turned into philibeg, filibeg or philabeg. Samuel Johnson used "filibeg" in a letter from his Highland tour in 1773, and Robert Burns used "philabeg" in his poem The Jolly Beggars. You will still see the word in old books and songs.

The word plaid also comes from Gaelic. Plaide roughly means a blanket, which is exactly what the great kilt was. In North America "plaid" now means the checked pattern itself, which causes a lot of confusion. In Scotland, tartan and plaid still mean two different things: the pattern and the blanket.

Other Kilt Words and What They Mean

Once you start wearing a kilt, you will hear a whole set of related words. Here are the common ones.

If a kilt isn't for you, tartan trews are the traditional alternative, often worn by Highland gentlemen on horseback. Each of the parts of a kilt, from the apron to the fell, has its own name too.

The Word Kilt in Other Languages

The English word travelled with the garment. Many languages simply borrowed "kilt" from English, while a few describe it as a "Scottish skirt".

Calling it a "Scottish skirt" is a translation shortcut, not the Scottish view. In Scotland, a kilt is never just a skirt: it is national dress, cut and pleated in its own way. Kilts are still made to measure today.

Kilt Meaning FAQs

What does the word kilt literally mean?

It literally means "tucked up". The verb "to kilt" meant to tuck your clothes up around your body, and the garment took its name from that.

Is kilt a Scottish or English word?

Both. The verb was first used in Middle English in the 1300s and reached Scots by 1513. The word is Scandinavian in origin, from Old Norse kjalta.

Is the word kilt Viking?

Probably, in part. It is linked to Old Norse kjalta (a lap or fold of cloth), and Danish and Swedish still have similar verbs meaning "to tuck up".

When was the word kilt first used for the garment?

Around 1730, according to Merriam-Webster. Before that, "kilt" was only a verb, and the Highland garment was usually called a plaid in English.

What is the Gaelic word for kilt?

Fèileadh, which means a fold or wrap. The great kilt is the fèileadh mòr ("great wrap") and the small kilt is the fèileadh beag ("little wrap").

What does philibeg mean?

Philibeg (also filibeg or philabeg) is an old English spelling of the Gaelic fèileadh beag, the small kilt. It appears in writing by Samuel Johnson and Robert Burns.

What is the plural of kilt?

Kilts. The Gaelic plural of fèileadh is fèilidhean.

What does "kilted" mean?

It usually means wearing a kilt, as in "a kilted wedding party". In older English it can also mean tucked up, as in a skirt kilted to the knee.

Does "kilt" ever mean "killed"?

Yes, in some dialects. In parts of Ireland and the southern United States, "kilt" is a casual way of saying "killed". It has nothing to do with the Scottish garment.

What does breacan mean?

Breacan is the Gaelic word for tartan cloth. It comes from breac, meaning speckled or chequered, and appears in breacan an fhèilidh, an old name for the belted plaid.