tartan

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtɑɹtn̩/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtɑːtn̩/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)tən

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”).

tartan (countable and uncountable, plural tartans)

1. A kind of woven woollen cloth with a distinctive pattern of coloured stripes intersecting at right angles, associated with Scottish Highlanders, different clans and some Scottish families and institutions having their own distinctive patterns.
2. The pattern associated with such material.
3. An individual or a group wearing tartan; a Highlander or Scotsman in general.
4. Trade name of a synthetic resin, used for surfacing tracks etc.

• tartan noir
• tartan tax
• tartanization
• tartanize
• tartanry

• → Catalan: tartà
• → Scottish Gaelic: tartan

tartan (comparative more tartan, superlative most tartan)

1. Having a pattern like a tartan.
   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 11, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     ... my pupils leave off their thick shoes and tight old tartan pelisses, and wear silk stockings and muslin frocks, as fashionable baronets' daughters should.

   • 1929, M. Barnard Eldershaw, A House is Built, Chapter IX, Section iii:

     In the second row of the cavalcade were Francie, Fanny's god-daughter, now thirteen years old and already elegant in long frilled pantalettes, tartan skirts, and a leghorn hat with streamers, …

2. (humorous) Scottish.

tartan (third-person singular simple present tartans, present participle tartaning, simple past and past participle tartaned)

1. (transitive) To clothe in tartan.

Borrowed from French tartane, from Italian tartana, of uncertain origin.

• tartana, tartane

tartan (plural tartans)

1. A type of one-masted lateen-sailed vessel used in the Mediterranean.
   • 1877, Jules Verne, Ellen E. Frewer (translator), Hector Servadac, Part 2, Chapter X: Market Prices in Gallia,

     Hakkabut hereupon descended into the hold of the tartan, and soon returned, carrying ten packets of tobacco, each weighing one kilogramme, and securely fastened by strips of paper, labelled with the French Government stamp.

   • 1896, Arthur Conan Doyle, Rodney Stone, Chapter IV: The Peace of Amiens,

     When we were watching Massena, off Genoa, we got a matter of seventy schooners, brigs, and tartans, with wine, food, and powder.

2. (historical) A kind of long covered carriage.

• Rattan, Tatran, rattan, tantra

From English tartan.

• IPA^(key): /tartan/, [ˈtˢɑːtˢan]

tartan n or c (singular definite tartanet or tartanen)

1. tartan (woollen cloth with a distinctive pattern)
2. tartan (synthetic resin, used for surfacing tracks etc.) [from 1969]

• skotskternet

Borrowed from English tartan.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɑr.tɑn/, (colloquial) /tɑrˈtɑn/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: tar‧tan

tartan n or m (plural tartans)

1. tartan (woollen cloth with a distinctive pattern of intersecting orthogonal coloured stripes, associated with Scottish Highlanders).
2. A kilt or cloak made of tartan.

Neuter gender is usually preferred for the mass noun denoting the fabric while masculine is preferred for countable nouns, but the distinction is not observed as clearly for this word as it is for other terms that are both mass nouns and countable nouns.

• tierelantijn

• Audio

  (file)

tartan m (plural tartans)

1. tartan

• “tartan”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtar.tan/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -artan
• Syllabification: tar‧tan

Borrowed from English tartan, from Middle English tartaryn, from Middle French tartarin, tiretaine, from Old French tiret, from tire, from Medieval Latin tyrius, from Latin Tyrus, from Ancient Greek Τύρος (Túros), from Phoenician 𐤑𐤅𐤓 (ṣwr).

tartan m inan

1. tartan (woollen cloth with a distinctive pattern of intersecting orthogonal coloured stripes, associated with Scottish Highlanders)
2. tartan (pattern associated with such material)
3. clothing made of such fabric
4. (athletics) tartan track (all-weather synthetic track surfacing made of polyurethane used for track and field competitions)
5. (athletics, colloquial) tartan track (stadium or running track covered with such material)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

tartan f

1. genitive plural of tartana

• tartan in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from French tartan.

tartan n (plural tartane)

1. tartan

From English tartan.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtʰarˠʃtan/

tartan m (genitive singular tartain, plural tartain)

1. tartan (woollen cloth with a distinctive pattern)