The Language of Clothing

[figheadair]

Father Bill has nicely covered the fact that English in particular is a language full of loan words including those from French, Norwegian, and Arabic.

In terms of Highland Dress, the principal element, the kilt, is a loan word, in this case from the the Old Norse 'kjalta', meaning pleated. In that sense it equates to the Gaelic 'feileadh', a fold. The question of why the loan word was adopted over the indigenous one is unclear but probably arose when the garment started to be tailored (sewing in the pleats). For non-Gaelic speakers, kilt was easier to say, and spell, that feileadh and so it was adopted, particularly by the army and so handed down in the same was khaki was.