kirtle
UK /ˈkəːt(ə)l/ · US /ˈkɚt(ə)l/ noun, verb
Forms kirtles kirtling kirtled
- noun A knee-length tunic.
- noun A short jacket.
- noun A woman's gown; a woman's outer petticoat or skirt.
- verb (transitive) To clothe or cover with, or as if with, a kirtle; to hitch up (a long garment) to the length of a kirtle.
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.
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [OE. kirtel, curtel, AS. cyrtel; skin to Icel. kyrtill, Sw. kjortel, Dan. kiortel, kiole.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “kirtle”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details