Tartan vs. Plaid

[Ziggs]

Ok, so the other day I was asked, "What is the difference between tartan and plaid?" I didn't really know how to answer it. Any ideas guys would be great. Thanks!

[sav]

Well, within the scope of Highland dress, a plaid is a piece of clothing, not a pattern, as it is understood today. A tartan, however, is defined as: "Any of numerous textile patterns consisting of stripes of varying widths and colors crossed at right angles against a solid background, each forming a distinctive design worn by the members of a Scottish clan." There are varying plaids, including the modern fly plaid, the long piper's plaid, and of course, the belted plaid (also referred to as the great kilt). Hope that helps a little.
~Sav

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Sav has it pretty much right. But just to clarify further...

"Plaid" actually comes from the Gaelic word for blanket. That's why the feileadh-mhor (Gaelic for "large wrap") is sometimes also called the belted plaid. Because it is a blanket that has been gathered and belted around your waist.

People, historically, also wore unbelted plaids -- large shawls in other words. And plaid, in the context of modern highland dress, can refer to any of the tailored or untailored garments worn about the shoulders -- be it a fly plaid, piper's plaid, drummer's plaid, or a folded picnic blanket.

So "plaid" refers to the clothing, no matter what the pattern of the fabric is -- even if it is solid color.

But the plaids most often were of a tartan pattern, or course. Which is why the words "plaid" and "tartan" have become so confused. Not only do we have people referring to tartan as "plaid" but I also encounter many people who refer to plaids and kilts as "tartans."

The Gaelic word for tartan is "breacan" which simply means "speckled." Oddly enough, they don't really have a precise word for a tartan pattern. The word tartan itself seems to have entered the vocabulary from the French word "tiretain" which originally referred to a type of linsey-woolsy cloth being imported from France in the sixteenth century. Why and how the word came to be applied to this particular form of pattern isn't really known.

But, in short, plaid is a garment, tartan is a pattern.

Aye,
Matt

[Colin]

If you are talking in terms of material, I was under the impression that to classify as a tartan, the pattern or sett must repeat itself horizontally and vertically, where as a plaid does not.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Colin scriptsit:

If you are talking in terms of material, I was under the impression that to classify as a tartan, the pattern or sett must repeat itself horizontally and vertically, where as a plaid does not.

No, this is not a real distinction. Just look at the modern Welsh tartans that use a different warp and weft. And there are a few old Scottish (unnamed) tartans that have a different warp and weft, as well.

Some people will say that a pattern has to be named to be a tartan and an unnamed pattern is "just a plaid," but this is not a real distinction. Rather like those that say "Mc" is Irish and "Mac" is Scottish and the like -- based on old wives' tales (no offense to old wives on the board!)

Matt

[Planopiper]

I understood that "tartan" referred to the weave - under 2 threads, over 2 threads. That weave gives the distinctive diagonals when 2 colors cross. Most patterns that you think of as plaid are over one, under one. Also, they're generally not symetrical. I know there were a few non-symetrical tartans, but they really seem to have been an exception, more than the rule, at least since Victorian times when tartans as we know them really came to be developed. I remember reading that the non-symetrical Buchanan tartan was really the result of a misprint in a book that it was listed in.