Etymology Dictionary

KIRTLE,  a sort of grown or petticoat.  (E. or Scand.)   Used rather vaguely.   M.E. kirtel, Chaucer, C. T. 3321; kurtel, Ancren Riwle, p. 10.—A.S. cyrtel, to translate Lat. palla; Ælfric's Gloss., in Wright's Vocab., i. 16, col. 2.   Also O. Northumbrian cyrtel, to translate Lat. tunica; Matt. v. 40 (Lindisfarne M.S.) + Icel. kyrtill, a kirtle, tunic, gown. + Dan. kiortel, a tunic. + Swed. kjortel, a petticoat.   β. Evidently a diminutive, with suffixed -l.   I have to suggest that it is probably a dimin. of Skirt, q.v.   Thus the Icel. kyrtill may well be a dimin. of Icel. skyrta, a shirt, a kind of kirtle; the Dan. kiortel, of Dan. skiorte, a shirt; and the Swed. kjortel, of Swed. skjorta, a shirt.   Shirt and skirt are doublets, so that these words answer to skirt also.   Perhaps the A.S. cyrtel was merely borrowed from the Scandinavian.   γ. The loss of s before k, common in Latin and Greek, is unusual in Teutonic; still it actually occurs in words related to skirt, viz. in Du. kort = E. s-hort = A.S. s-ceort (with which cf. Du. schort, an apron, skirt); and in G. kurz, short.   The Lat. curtus, short, is from the same root, and its influence may have contributed to this loss of s.   See Shirt, Short, Curt.