fell

en-adj

fell (comparative feller, superlative fellest)

feller (comparative)
fellest (superlative)

From Middle English fel, fell (“strong, fierce, terrible, cruel, angry”), either from Old French fel or from Old English *fel, *felo, *fæle (“cruel, savage, fierce”) (only in compounds, wælfel (“bloodthirsty”), ealfelo (“evil, baleful”), ælfæle (“very dire”), etc.), from Proto-West Germanic *fali, *falu, from Proto-Germanic *faluz (“wicked, cruel, terrifying”). Cognate with Old Frisian fal (“cruel”), Middle Dutch fel (“wrathful, cruel, bad, base”), German Low German fell (“rash, swift”), Danish fæl (“disgusting, hideous, ghastly, grim”). Compare also Middle High German vālant (“imp”) and Dutch fel (“fierce, feisty, bitter”). See felon.

cog

I am so fell to my business.

1667 January 25 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “January 15th, 1666–1667”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume VI, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1895, →OCLC:


tartan

en-noun

tartan (countable and uncountable, plural tartans)

→ Catalan: tartà

→ Scottish Gaelic: tartan

Blend of Middle English tartaryn (“rich material”), from Middle French tartarin (“Tartar cloth”), and Middle French tiretaine (“cloth of mixed fibers”), from Old French tiret (“kind of cloth”), from tire (“oriental cloth of silk”), from Medieval Latin tyrius (“material from Tyre”), from Latin Tyrus (“Tyre”).

der

Coordinate term: flannel

A kind of woven woolen cloth with a distinctive pattern of colored stripes intersecting at right angles, associated with Scottish Highlanders, different clans and some Scottish families and institutions having their own distinctive patterns; clothing made from this material.

tartà

woollen cloth with a distinctive pattern


sett

A variant of set to distinguish various technical senses.

But it is quite sad to reflect that some 4,500 badger setts were already wiped out using poisoned gas between 1975 and 1982. When you consider that an average sett can contain up to 15 animals, parents and cubs, it is easy to imagine the scale of suffering involved.

2006, David Kavanagh, A Country Pillow Book, page 69:

The system of tunnels that is the home of a badger.

The Vestiarium gave setts for Lowland houses as well as Highland clans[…]and many families within the clans have their own setts to add to the clan tartans.[…]The clans and families are branching out with Dress and Hunting tartans, and the same sett—any sett—may be produced in dark "modern," lighter "ancient" or "muted" color schemes.

2012, J. Charles Thompson, “Introduction”, in James Grant, Scottish Tartans in Full Color:

The pattern of distinctive threads and yarns that make up the plaid of a Scottish tartan.

(weaving) The number of warp ends per inch in the cloth.

(weaving, England) The number of reeds or splits per inch – one half the number of ends per inch.

Very durable grey granite has been quarried near Aberdeen for more than 300 years, and blocked and dressed paving "setts," kerb and building stones, and monumental and other ornamental work of granite have long been exported from the district to all parts of the world.

1911, “Aberdeen”, in Hugh Chisholm, editor, The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information, 11th edition, volume I, Cambridge, Mass., New York, N.Y.: At the University Press, →OCLC, page 49:

Three horses trotted abreast, with the clatter of hoofs on the granite setts, and the yellow, uproarious machine jolted violently behind them, […]

1912, Joseph Conrad, chapter 7, in A Personal Record, New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Bros. Publishers, →OCLC:

The old market-square was not very large, a mere bare patch of granite setts, usually with a few fruit-stalls under a wall.

1920, D[avid] H[erbert Richards] Lawrence, chapter 26, in Women in Love, New York, N.Y.: Privately printed for subscribers only, →OCLC:

This path, which consists of some 60,000 setts laid directly into the earth, is perhaps the single most noteworthy 'feature' of the design, lending the whole conception a feeling of unity and coherence, enhancing the sense that one has been absorbed into both the place and the journey through it.

2013 November 16, Tim Richardson, “The JFK memorial at Runnymede is fit to stand forever: Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe's wonderful tribute to JFK at Runnymede hinges on the power of landscape [print edition: A memorial to JFK fit to stand forever]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening), archived from the original on 2015-07-03, page G8:

A small, square-cut piece of quarried stone used for paving and edging.


kilt

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

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.


sporran

From Scottish Gaelic sporan (“purse”), from Middle Irish sparán, possibly from Late Latin bursa (“purse”), ultimately from Ancient Greek βύρσα (búrsa, “leather, hide”).

A small pouch, usually made of either fur or plain or fur-trimmed leather, which is worn, suspended from a belt or chain, on the front of a kilt and used to hold various items normally carried in trouser pockets.


Glengarry

en-noun

Glengarry (plural Glengarrys or Glengarries)

Glengarrys (plural)
Glengarries (plural)

From Glengarry, a valley in northern Scotland.

There was old Tommy with his back to the dining-room door, his Glengarry awry on his tousled head, and his bandy legs stretched firmly apart.

1913, Hall Caine, The woman thou gavest me:

A brimless cap, longer than it is wide, and creased lengthwise across the top, often with ribbons trailing behind, and frequently worn with the Scottish kilt.

United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry


kilt pin

A pin, somewhat similar in shape, though larger than, a safety pin or bobby pin, which is inserted through the outer, front apron, or through both aprons of a kilt or a kilt-skirt.


pleating to the stripe

A system of pleating a kilt in which a particular vertical stripe of the tartan pattern is selected and the pleats are arranged so that this chosen stripe runs down the center of each pleat.


pleating to the sett

A system of pleating a kilt in which one full sett of the tartan pattern is taken up in each pleat, resulting in a reproduction of the pattern across the back of the kilt.


knife pleat

(sewing) A type of sharply pressed pleating, especially in a skirt or kilt, in which all of the folds are turned in one direction, with each pleat being three layers of fabric thick.