filibeg

or phil·i·beg

[ fil-uh-beg ]

noun

1. the kilt or pleated skirt worn by Scottish Highlanders.

filibeg

/ ˈfɪlɪˌbɛɡ /

noun

1. the kilt worn by Scottish Highlanders

Word History and Origins

Origin of filibeg¹

1740–50; < Scots Gaelic, equivalent to feile kilt + beag little

Word History and Origins

Origin of filibeg¹

C18: from Scottish Gaelic fēileadhbeag , from fēileadh kilt + beag small

Example Sentences

They’re very versatile—not necessarily the short kilts that we think of today, which is the filibeg, but the breacan féile, or the “great kilt,” which is the stuff they wore in Braveheart.

From BusinessWeek

Even the lawyers and doctors, the newspaper editors, the railroad people, the civil engineers, and the solicitors, all come out as Yorkshire Hussars, Gloucestershire Fencibles, Hants Rifles, or Royal Archers; these last, very picturesque, with kilt, filibeg, and dirk, much handsomer than any other Highland regiment!

From Project Gutenberg

He is the brawny Highland warrior, with buckled tartan flung across his shoulder, gay in pointed plume and filibeg.

From Project Gutenberg

It may be they will count me over-modest, Deem me Victorian, dub me prude; I may have early views, the very oddest, On what is chaste and what is rude; Yet am I certain that my leg Would not look right beneath a filibeg.

From Project Gutenberg

Puck Mulligan footed featly, trilling: I hardly hear the purlieu cry Or a tommy talk as I pass one by Before my thoughts begin to run On F. M'Curdy Atkinson, The same that had the wooden leg And that filibustering filibeg That never dared to slake his drouth, Magee that had the chinless mouth.

From Project Gutenberg