shirt

A1 Topic:Clothing & Appearance

US /ʃɜɹt/ UK /ʃɜːt/ See IPA manual

Freq #1595

Meanings

1

noun
A piece of clothing worn on the upper body, usually with a collar, sleeves, and buttons.

He went to the mall to buy some shirts in his size.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a piece of clothing worn on... sark

Word family

Forms shirts

Derived forms greenshirtovershirtredshirtshacketshirtbandshirtdressshirtedshirtfrontshirtfulshirtgateshirtlessshirtlet

Appears in

Phrases (2)

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Idioms (1)

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keep your shirt on
used to tell someone to stop being impatient or angry

Simplified etymology

Shirt is an Old English word sharing an ancient root with skirt and short. The root's probable basic sense was “short garment.”

Etymology

From Middle English sherte, shurte, schirte, from Old English sċyrte (“a short garment; skirt; kirtle”), from Proto-West Germanic *skurtijā, from Proto-Germanic *skurtijǭ (“a short garment, skirt, apron”), from *skurtaz (“short”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Schoarte (“apron”), Dutch schort (“apron”), German Schürze (“apron”), Danish skjorte (“shirt”), Norwegian skjorte (“shirt”), Swedish skjorta (“shirt”), Faroese skjúrta (“shirt”), Icelandic skyrta (“shirt”). Doublet of skirt via Old Norse; further related to short.

*(s)ker- Proto-Indo-European sherte Middle English sċyrte Old English *skurtijā Proto-West Germanic *skurtijǭ Proto-Germanic

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Clothing & Appearance

External links

# shirt

**Type:** Word
**Level:** A1
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ʃɜɹt/
**IPA (UK):** /ʃɜːt/
**Frequency rank:** 1595

## Meanings
1. A piece of clothing worn on the upper body, usually with a collar, sleeves, and buttons.

## Examples
- He went to the mall to buy some shirts in his size.

## Derived Forms
- greenshirt
- overshirt
- redshirt
- shacket
- shirtband
- shirtdress
- shirted
- shirtfront
- shirtful
- shirtgate
- shirtless
- shirtlet

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *(s)ker-
- Root: sherte
- Root: sċyrte
- Root: *skurtijā
- Root: *skurtijǭ

## Etymology
From Middle English sherte, shurte, schirte, from Old English sċyrte (“a short garment; skirt; kirtle”), from Proto-West Germanic *skurtijā, from Proto-Germanic *skurtijǭ (“a short garment, skirt, apron”), from *skurtaz (“short”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Schoarte (“apron”), Dutch schort (“apron”), German Schürze (“apron”), Danish skjorte (“shirt”), Norwegian skjorte (“shirt”), Swedish skjorta (“shirt”), Faroese skjúrta (“shirt”), Icelandic skyrta (“shirt”). Doublet of skirt via Old Norse; further related to short.

## AI Etymology
Shirt is from Middle English sherte, shurte, schirte, from Old English sċyrte (“a short garment; skirt; kirtle”), from Proto-West Germanic *skurtijā, from Proto-Germanic *skurtijǭ (“a short garment, skirt, apron”), from *skurtaz (“short”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Schoarte (“apron”), Dutch schort (“apron”), German Schürze (“apron”), Danish skjorte (“shirt”), Norwegian skjorte (“shirt”), Swedish skjorta (“shirt”), Faroese skjúrta (“shirt”), Icelandic skyrta (“shirt”). Doublet of skirt via Old Norse; further related to short. Important forms in the word's history include Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker-, Middle English sherte, Old English sċyrte, Proto-West Germanic *skurtijā, Proto-Germanic *skurtijǭ. In current use it includes the sense A piece of clothing worn on the upper body, usually with a collar, sleeves, and buttons.

## Topics
- Clothing & Appearance

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