kirtle

English

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kirtle

/ˈkəːt(ə)l/ UK
/ˈkɜː(ɹ)-/ UK
/ˈkɚt(ə)l/ US
/-ɾ(ə)l/ US

Rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)təl

Where it comes from

From Middle English kirtel, from Old English cyrtel, cognate with Old Norse kyrtill (“tunic”) (whence Icelandic kyrtill, Danish kjortel (“gown, tunic”), Swedish kjortel (“petticoat, skirt”)), from Old Norse *kurtil-, supposedly a diminutive of *kurt-, from Latin curtus (“short, shortened”). Compare German Kittel.

noun kirtles

A knee-length tunic. All in a kirtle of diſcolourd ſay / He clothed was, ypaynted full of eies; / And in his boſome ſecretly there lay / An hatefull Snake, the which his taile vptyes / In many folds, and mortall ſting implyes.
A short jacket. KIRTLE, […] a Sort of ſhort Jacket.
A woman's gown; a woman's outer petticoat or skirt. Per[igot] VVell decked in a frocke of gray, / Wil[ly] hey ho, gray is greet, / Per. And in a kirtle of green ſay, / [Wil.] the greene is for maydens meet.

verb kirtles · kirtling · kirtled

transitive To clothe or cover with, or as if with, a kirtle; to hitch up (a long garment) to the length of a kirtle. Eastward the Night / Climbs slow with hooded brows, and languid Day / Kirtles her robe fantastical, and leans / To take the embrace of darkness.

Translations

Every language

noun knee-length tunic

Deutsch	Kittel, Tunika, Rock

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MLA

"kirtle." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/kirtle. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

kirtle. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/kirtle

Chicago

"kirtle." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/kirtle.

BibTeX

@misc{kirtle_2026,
  title = {kirtle},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/kirtle},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}