Shirt
/ʃɜːrt/noun
A garment worn on the upper body, typically with sleeves and a collar.
Did you know?Shirt is historically related to skirt: both descend from an old Germanic root meaning a cut or slit piece of cloth, showing how clothing words often began as descriptions of shape, not fashion.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*skurtijō / *skurtaz
“A short garment or cut piece of clothing”
Old English
OE
scyrte
“A shirt, tunic, or undergarment”
Old Norse
ON
skyrta
“A shirt or tunic”
Middle English
ME
shirt / sherte
“A shirt or tunic worn next to the body”
Modern English
English
shirt
“A garment worn on the upper body”