My Gaelic dictionary has osan for "hose, stocking" and cadadh "tartan for hose".
I don't know if there would have been a special name when the hose made out of woven yardage were standard because that's how they had always been made. A special name coined after knit hose became standard would be what's called a "back formation" in linguistics.
Like needing to call it the "great kilt" after a new sort of kilt had come along.
Last edited by OC Richard; 5th September 19 at 04:57 PM.
Proud Mountaineer from the Highlands of West Virginia; son of the Revolution and Civil War; first Europeans on the Guyandotte
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