fillibeg

[xman]

My Apple Dictionary is pretty curt on the topic,

filibeg |ˌfɪlɪbɛg| (also philibeg, filabeg)
noun Scottish, chiefly historical
a kilt.
ORIGIN mid 18th cent.: from Scottish Gaelic feileadh-beag ‘little kilt,’ from feileadh ‘plaid’ and beag ‘little.’

but the more common term is well described.

kilt |kɪlt|
noun
a knee-length skirt of pleated tartan cloth, traditionally worn by men as part of Scottish Highland dress and now also worn by women and girls.
kilt
verb [ trans. ]
gather (a garment or material) in vertical pleats : [as adj. ] ( kilted) kilted skirts.
DERIVATIVES
kilted adjective
ORIGIN Middle English (as a verb in the sense [tuck up around the body] ): of Scandinavian origin; compare with Danish kilte (op) ‘tuck (up)’ and Old Norse kilting ‘a skirt.’ The noun dates from the mid 18th cent.

There's even a pic.



My Oxford Paperback is lacking the term filibeg.

[OC Richard]

feileadh ‘plaid’

I wonder where they got that meaning from.

"Plaid" as in striped or chequered or varigated is breacan in Gaelic.

It got me to haul out my Scottish Gaelic and Irish dictionaries.

In them, feileadh is only defined as "kilt".

But in the English > Gaelic section I found:

fold, v. a. fangaich, cuir am mainnir; fill, paisg, cuir air fhilleadh.

Which sent me back to the Gaelic > English section where is found:

fill v. fold, imply, plait.

filleadh vbl. n. m. folding, implying; a fold...

filleag n. f. a small fold...

So the "folding" meaning seems to be the origin.