tartan

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a woven fabric or pattern formed by horizontal and vertical bands of different colors crossing one another

   She chose a red-and-green tartan for the winter skirt.

2. 2
   noun

   a particular design of such intersecting colored bands, traditionally associated with a Scottish clan, family, regiment, or institution

   The museum displayed the regiment's ceremonial tartan beside its old uniform.

Simplified etymology

Tartan, recorded in late Middle English, was apparently borrowed into Scots from Old French tertaine. That French term may earlier have denoted a rich cloth associated with Tartary, although this history is uncertain.

Borrowed from Scots tartan and Older Scots tartane, probably from Old French tiretaine, a cloth woven from mixed fibers. The modern association of particular tartan patterns with Scottish clans and institutions developed mainly from the late eighteenth century onward.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary