kirtle vs petticoat

kirtle

noun
  • A woman's gown; a woman's outer petticoat or skirt. 

  • A knee-length tunic. 

  • A short jacket. 

verb
  • To clothe or cover with, or as if with, a kirtle; to hitch up (a long garment) to the length of a kirtle. 

petticoat

noun
  • A type of ornamental skirt or underskirt, often displayed below a dress; chiefly in plural, designating a woman's skirts collectively. 

  • A light woman's undergarment worn under a dress or skirt, and hanging either from the shoulders or (now especially) from the waist; a kind of slip, worn to make the skirt fuller, or for extra warmth. 

  • A woman's undercoat, worn to be displayed beneath an open gown. 

  • A woman. 

  • A fisherman's loose canvas or oilcloth skirt. 

  • A bell-mouthed piece over the exhaust nozzles in the smokebox of a locomotive, strengthening and equalising the draught through the boiler-tubes. 

  • A tight, usually padded undercoat worn by men over a shirt and under the doublet. 

verb
  • To dress in a petticoat. 

How often have the words kirtle and petticoat occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )