Quote Originally Posted by EagleJCS View Post
Images like this put me in mind of paintings I have seen of the 13th and 14th century European court dress. (King Henry VIII and earlier). The leg coverings would be the main thing making it a bit different, since in the court dress paintings, they appear to be wearing tight-fitting leggings going all the way up (would they be called trews?) rather than the knee-length socks we call kilt hose.

Nothing else to add to the conversation.
Sorry to continue derailing the kilt hose discussion. Just let me know if it's annoying.

The terms vary by time and place, but the full-length tight-fitting leggings are often called "chauses/chausses" in the Middle Ages on the Continent; or just some variation on "hose" (e.g., Dutch: hoos). They are worn up through the English Renaissance (Henry VIII is 16th Century); Shakespeare seems to have called them just "hose". (Fun fact: since there wasn't much clingy, stretchy material in those days, the chauses were held up by tying them to your underwear.)

The term "trews" is a little confusing. Pre-Seventeenth Century, they seem more likely to be baggy (at least from waist to knee; below that they might be bound tighter), then they appear to have really slimmed down by the time they become Highland-wear. As far as I know, trews were always full trousers, not leggings.

Historico-linguistic aside: According to Merriam Webster - and despite appearances - "chauses" and "hose" have completely different derivations. The former is from the Latin for heel (which morphed into a word for shoe, which morphed ...); the latter from Old English / Gemanic for ... legging.