How Scottish people view tartan

[OC Richard]

when I mention tartan...the almost universal response is "Oh you mean "plaid"". It is interesting how an item of Highland Dress has become confused with tartan.

That's a fascinating thing! Because from what I read the English word "plaid" was borrowed from the Gaelic word for blanket.

BTW it's pretty common in language for the word for a thing to be adopted as a word for the colour of the thing, witness our colour-words "orange" and "taupe" (a fruit and a furry creature respectively).

More interesting that Scots use the French word "tartan" to describe such a pattern rather than the native word breac.

In any case, what I wonder is: did English have a word that described a tartan pattern prior to borrowing "plaid"?

When I think of the early accounts in English of Highland Dress they describe the mantles as "striped" "variegated" "mottled" etc. so perhaps English had no word, hence the borrowing of "plaid" filled a need.