skirt

→ Japanese: スカート (sukāto)

→ Korean: 스커트 (seukeoteu)

→ Malay: skirt

→ Scottish Gaelic: sgiort

From Middle English skyrte, from Old Norse skyrta, from Proto-Germanic *skurtijǭ. Doublet of shirt. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Skoarte (“apron”), Dutch schort (“apron”), German Schürze (“apron”), Danish skørt (“skirt”), Swedish skört (“hem of a jacket”), Norwegian skjørt (“skirt”).


miniskirt

People who are “switched-on” and can twitch to prove it. And now–the latest—the chest toupee and the mini-skirt. […] For the benefit of those who are neither switched-on nor gear, the mini-skirt is actually a semi-skirt.

1966 May 29, Russell Baker, “Observer: London Is I-Cumen In, Sing Cu-Cu”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

A short skirt with its hemline well above the knees, generally at mid-thigh level.


sarong

A garment made of a length of printed cloth wrapped about the waist that is commonly worn by men and women in South and Southeast Asia, also in the Pacific islands.

sarong

garment made of printed cloth wrapped about the waist


kilt

en-verb

kilt (third-person singular simple present kilts, present participle kilting, simple past and past participle kilted)

kilts (present singular third-person)
kilting (participle present)
kilted (participle past)
kilted (past)

From Middle English kilten (“to tuck up, gird”), apparently from North Germanic, ultimately from Old Norse kelta, kjalta (“skirt; lap”). Perhaps from Proto-Germanic *kelt-, *kelþǭ, *kilþį̄ (“womb”), from Proto-Indo-European *gelt- (“round body; child”). Cognate with Danish kilte (“to tuck”), Swedish kilta (“to swathe”). Related to English child.

der

Else at her new place worked outdoor and indoor, she'd to kilt her skirts (if they needed kilting – and that was damned little with those short-like frocks) and go out and help at the spreading of dung […].

1933, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Cloud Howe (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 385:


kilt

A traditional Scottish garment, usually worn by men, having roughly the same morphology as a wrap-around skirt, with overlapping front aprons and pleated around the sides and back, and usually made of twill-woven worsted wool with a tartan pattern.

(historical) Any Scottish garment from which the above lies in a direct line of descent, such as the philibeg, or the great kilt or belted plaid

I was about to say that I had known the Celebrity from the time he wore kilts. But I see I will have to amend that, because he was not a celebrity then, nor, indeed, did he achieve fame until some time after I left New York for the West.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

A plaid, pleated school uniform skirt sometimes structured as a wraparound, sometimes pleated throughout the entire circumference; also worn by boys in the 19th-century United States.

A variety of non-bifurcated garments made for men and loosely resembling a Scottish kilt, but most often made from different fabrics and not always with tartan plaid designs.


underskirt

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A skirt worn underneath another skirt; a petticoat.

An under layer of a multi-layer gown over which outer skirts are draped.


dhoti

en-noun

dhoti (countable and uncountable, plural dhotis)

(countable, uncountable) The cotton fabric used for such loincloths.


hobble skirt

A skirt with a narrow enough hem to significantly impede the wearer's stride, or hobble the wearer.

habal

a skirt with a narrow enough hem to significantly impede the wearer's stride


crinoline

crinoline (countable and uncountable, plural crinolines)

A stiff fabric made from cotton and horsehair.

These standards have not just been oppressive but deadly. In the nineteenth century, stiff crinoline petticoats puffed out skirts so far that the cheap materials often brushed against open flames and caught fire. This arbitrary convention of dress caused three thousand women to be burned alive.

2022, W. David Marx, chapter 4, in Status and Culture, Viking, →ISBN:

A stiff petticoat made from this fabric.

Any of the hoops making up the framework used to support cladding over a boiler.


microskirt

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From micro- + skirt, by analogy with miniskirt.

The girls were slender, delectable in stacked heels and shiny clothes that glowed in the dark. One of them wore a microskirt, and he could see the tops of black or navy thigh-highs as he stopped to pick them up.

1999, James Patterson, Pop Goes the Weasel, Headline, →ISBN:

An extremely short miniskirt with its hemline at the upper thigh, at or just below crotch or underwear level.


philibeg

From Scottish Gaelic fèileadh beag, from fèileadh (“wrap, fold”) + beag (“little”).

Instead of plaids and philibegs, and trews, they were, henceforth, to be clothed in coats and in waistcoats, and (worst of all) in BREECHES!!!

1846, John Campbell, The Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England:


rah-rah

Repetition of rah, as used in cheering at sporting competitions.

A pleated miniskirt, so named because of the resemblance to skirts typically worn by high school and college cheerleaders, who normally chant "rah-rah" at sporting events.


micromini

On the dance floor, a woman in a micromini apparently forgot she was supposed to be elegant.

2007 February 4, Alex Williams, “A Whole New World”, in New York Times:


pencil skirt

From pencil + skirt, referring to its shape.

Anna decided to wear a black pencil skirt with her blue blouse that day to work.

And for Italian sportswear giant MaxMara, the cornerstone of the show was a crisp khaki safari jacket shown over a pencil skirt.

2004 November 1, Kate Betts, “Into the Wild”, in Time:

For a long while I said any girl could get through round one of MasterChef simply by turning up in a pencil skirt and making a fried Nutella sandwich with condensed milk and an expression that says, "I like older men with no hair".

2011 February 12, Grace Dent, The Guardian:

A slim skirt (clothing) with a straight and narrow cut, usually approximately knee-length.


grass skirt

A skirt made from long dried grass, or synthetic material resembling it.


hoop skirt

A women's undergarment worn in various historical periods to hold the skirt extended into a fashionable shape, typically consisting of a fabric petticoat with casings to hold a stiffening material, variously rope, osiers, whalebone, steel, or nylon.


overskirt

/ˈəʊvəˌskɜːt/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-overskirt.wav

Agnès’s dress is very attractive too, but the overskirt did remind me of some old Ralph Lauren sheets I used to have.

2009 July 19, Anita Gates, “Goofy Fun, With Dapper Men”, in New York Times:

A skirt worn visibly, especially over another layer, such as a petticoat.


midiskirt

From mid- (in mid-calf) + skirt, with linking -i- after miniskirt. Compare midi-.

The midi skirt, which you would imagine to be an almost polar opposite look to black trousers, has unexpectedly edged them out of my wardrobe.

2016 October 28, Jess Cartner-Morley, The Guardian:


circle skirt

Because the garment is manufactured by cutting a central circle out of a larger, circular piece of fabric.

A skirt cut in sections to make one or more circles with a hole for the waist, so the skirt is very full but hangs smoothly from the waist without darts, pleats, or gathers.


poodle skirt

Some of the most political dykes in town had already converted, tossing out their Levi's and Birkenstocks in favor of poodle skirts and heels.

1986 [1984], Armistead Maupin, Babycakes (Tales of the City), page 64:

A wide felt knee-length skirt of a solid bold colour displaying a design appliquéd or transferred to the fabric, originally of a coiffed French poodle; popular in the United States in the 1950s.


maxiskirt

The mere mention of baked brie cheese with sliced green apples, for example, conjures both exhilaration for a time when the melty treasure seemed the height of sophistication and the embarrassment of serving what, in retrospect, seems like the maxiskirt of the table.

2009 September 6, Kim Severson, “The Fickle Palate”, in New York Times:

A skirt whose hemline descends to the ankles.


rah-rah skirt

From rah-rah, reduplication of rah, a shortened form of hurrah (referencing the characteristic chant of cheerleaders) + skirt.

"Someone's always saying 'Try on this rah-rah skirt,'", says fresh-faced vocalist Katrina Leskanich, 25.

1985 July 20, Ethlie Ann Vare, “Katrina's Waves Finally Find the Sunshine”, in Billboard:

A short flounced skirt of a style similar to that worn by cheerleaders.


pettiskirt

A kind of skirt modelled on old-fashioned petticoats.


flippy skirt

A skirt with a hem that turns upward slightly.


prairie skirt

Named for its resemblance to the home-sewn skirts worn by pioneer women in the mid-19th century.

A traditional American flared skirt with flounces.


fishtail skirt

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ntama

A kind of skirt or wrapper worn by women in Ghana.


apron skirt

1984, Paul Hulton, America 1585: The Complete Drawings of John White, The University of North Carolina Press and British Museum Publications, description of Plate 33, p. 178,

The woman, described […] as a chief’s wife or chief lady of Pomeiooc, wears an apron-skirt of fringed skin, edged at the top and bottom with a single row of white beads.

(historical) An item of clothing worn by women in some North American indigenous communities, consisting of an apron-like flap hanging over the front of the thighs, sometimes with an additional flap hanging in the back.


riding skirt

A skirt traditionally worn by a woman while riding, able to be fastened around her waist while mounted on the animal.


waterfall skirt

waterfall skirt (plural waterfall skirts)

(clothing) A skirt that is longer on one side than the other.


tube skirt

Pepa runs all over Madrid in high heels and tube skirts that make her hobble and give the impression of restraining a naturally energetic woman.

1988 December 25, Michael Bronski, “Passion Statement”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 24, page 11: