Hello,
Last Sunday, a friend came to a Steampunk St. Patty's Day party
sporting knickers. I am in the habit of calling them knee-breeches from my Rev
War days.
Is knickers the correct term for men's knee breeches in Victorian
times?
Henry Osier
I thought knickers referred to underwear.
Julie
Last Sunday, a friend came to a Steampunk St. Patty's Day party
sporting knickers. I am in the habit of calling them knee-breeches from my
Rev
War days.
Is knickers the correct term for men's knee breeches in Victorian
times?
Knickers are short for knickerbockers, from some deep recess of my memory.
I know they weren't called knee-breeches during Victorian times (except
maybe by old ladies) but I can't verify they were called knickers.
My theory is that the ladies' underwear term, knickers, came from the name
of the
In the '80s people called pants that ended just below the knee knickers.
Before that, they were peddle pushers. And I think there's at least one
other name for them. Knee highs, maybe? It seems every time they come
back into fashion, they are called something else.
Maybe the term breeches is
Ah the wonderful vagaries of fashion terms. Here's what I believe the
evolution is:
18th and early 19th century: the general term for pants that end at the
knee is knee breeches--or just plain breeches (let's not go back to
Elizabethan trunk hose, etc. now!)
1809: Washington Irving
On 3/20/13 4:05 PM, Hope Greenberg wrote:
And when do baseball uniforms move to shorter baggy pants that are
called knickerbockers...hmmm...
Ah-ha - here's one lead:
http://exhibits.baseballhalloffame.org/dressed_to_the_nines/timeline_1868.htm
- Hope
Oh heck, as long as I'm in there, here's the OED entry for breeches:
c. Now always in pl. breeches /?br?t??z/ , or a pair of breeches(perh.
not so used before 15th c.). /Breeches/ are distinguished from
/trousers/ by coming only just below the knee, but dialectally (and
humorously)
Modernly, you are correct. My grandmother was fond of asking if I'd
gotten my knickers in a twist if I was angry about something. This
often happened if I was being sent to my room for beating up a younger
sibling.
--cin
Cynthia Barnes
cinbar...@gmail.com
On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 11:38 AM,
On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 12:16 PM, Sybella mae...@gmail.com wrote:
In the '80s people called pants that ended just below the knee knickers.
Assuming you mean 1980s: I recall Capri pants for women,not knickers.
Before that, they were peddle pushers. And I think there's at least one
other name
Certainly breeches is the correct term for the garments worn as part
of British court dress during the Victorian era. I'm not sure what
the lower garment of a Norfolk suit is called, though. A random
advertisement from 1905 refers to hunting breeches, but that's all a
quick search turned up.
--
The only contribution I can make is that in Arthur Ransome's Swallows
and Amazons books, written and set in the 1930s, a small boy (Roger) is
described as wearing knickerbockers.
Emily
On 3/20/2013 3:05 PM, Hope Greenberg wrote:
Ah the wonderful vagaries of fashion terms. Here's what I
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