Quote Originally Posted by MacMillan of Rathdown View Post
WHAT MAKES A KILT A KILT?

How about: kilt: A part of modern male highland dress, a knee length 'skirt' of tartan cloth, thickly pleated at the back, probably descended from the woollen plaid worn by the highlanders from early times. This is the definition used in "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Scotland", Lomand Books, 2004.

With the exception of the word "tartan" I think this pretty much sums up it up. The kilt is the refinement of the earlier dress of the highlanders. Like all good sartorial evolution, it became simpler not more complicated.
This is a perfectly good definition, as far as it goes, but some kilts, as mentioned earlier, are not made from tartan cloth, and there are skirts made from tartan cloth that are not kilts. Utilikilts on the other hand are pleated at the back, but are not made from tartan cloth. So how do we decide whether or not they're "descended from the wollen plaid worn by the highlanders from early times"? The only way I can see is to enumerate the characteristics of a kilt, and see how they differ from other forms of dress. That way, we'll be able to tell if a garment has the proper characteristics to count as a kilt.