My son is going to be wearing a kilt to be in a friend's wedding (oh, this is going to be SO photo-worthy!).
How did a kilt come to be called that, please?
It's from a verb in Middle English kilten 'to tuck up'. It's from Scandinavian, Old Icelandic.
Then to tuck up your kilt would be a redundancy?. Any relation between quilt and kilt?
Quilt comes ultimately from Latin
culcita, 'mattress'.
To tuck up must be akin to the biblical "to gird one's loins".
The long robes worn in that era would prevent haste, thus
to pick up the hems of the robe and tuck them in to the
belt to free the lower legs from obstruction so movement
could be quicker.
"to gird one's loins".
Gird (< ME girden < OE gyrdan 'to gird, bind round; L. cingere') is related to girdle. The concept behind girding is to encircle or put on a belt. Loins weren't the only things being girded in the Old Testament: cf. Lev VIII.7. And he put upon him the coat, and girded him with the girdle, and clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod upon him, and he girded him with the curious girdle of the ephod, and bound [it] unto him therewith.
Any relation between quilt and kilt?
Nope (see Faldo's reply for etymology) just a happy coincidence.
Thanks, all! zmjezhd, I was going to ask you what men who wear a kilt are tucking up, but I reckon Luke answered that.
> put the ephod upon him
Yes, very curious - since I gather this word comes from the Hebrew meaning 'to put on', it looks suspiciously like a translation error, doesn't it?
Collins has it so:-
an embroidered vestment believed to resemble an apron with shoulder straps, worn by priests in ancient Israel
[from Hebrew ēphōdh]
> back
Hi Fong, Happy New Year to you and the lovely AnnaS. 'Back' may be a little premature, having popped in for a reminder about Tom Swifties, but.
Thanks Rhuby and Luke - yes, I get that we're talking about a garment used in religious rituals that is more or less an apron or, schematically, a decorative wife-beater. But the only etymology I found suggested that the noun came from 'aphad', meaning 'to put on'. So the original meaning was something like…
And he put upon him the coat, and girded him with the girdle, and clothed him with the robe, and put the ‘thing you put on’ upon him, and he girded him with the curious girdle of the ‘thing you put on’, and bound [it] unto him therewith.