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The term “panties” can refer to different types of clothing, but in the UK it usually means underwear. “Don’t put your panties in” means to stay calm. “Knickers” were popularized by Washington Irving and were worn by Dutch immigrants, athletes, and little boys. Modern panties are seen in sports, while women had floral pants or bloomers as outerwear.
Panties can refer to several different types of clothing. In current UK usage, the term tends to mean panties or underwear. The expression “Don’t put your panties in” is a suggestion to stay calm, a state that may not be achieved if your underwear has bunched up or twisted. In the US you are most likely to hear this term associated with pantyhose, a type of short or long pant that is baggy above the knee and can fold up (or be elasticated) just below the knee or ankle. This explanation will mainly focus on knickers as knickers, and not on the use of the term in the UK today.
The term knickerbockers is an interesting one to track down. It was used by Washington Irving, who named a character Deidrich Knickerbocker in his New York History. In the work, Irving uses the character, a colorful man of Dutch descent, as the fictional author of the piece. The name Knickerbocker actually existed before Irving’s invention, and Irving had a friend named Herman Knickerbocker. However, the Irving Story popularized the knickerbocker as a term, and the term became associated with the baggy, buttoned below the knee style of trousers worn by some of the Dutch immigrants.
The Dutch clearly weren’t the only ones wearing these shorts. They were frequently worn by athletes as convenient shorts, and some panties were worn on military uniforms. Little boys, until the mid-20th century, may wear shorts until they reach a certain age. Graduating in long pants was a rite of passage for many kids as they hit their teens or tweens. The advantages of children’s panties will surely be seen by many parents. As kids get older, replacing pants is often expensive. As the shorts fastened at the knee and were wide, they could be made a little longer and roomier, so the boys would fit in the pants much longer than they normally would with full-length pants.
Modern panties are most often seen at sporting events, especially baseball. Baseball pants are now generally stretchy and sit below the knee, and are generally much less baggy than the shorts of yore. Other sports prefer longer pants; But both skiers and soccer players started out wearing knickers, accompanied by long woolen socks.
Although men generally wore knickers, women had an equivalent style of clothing, floral pants or trousers, which could be worn buttoned below the knee under dresses. Sometimes fashion trends have tried to revive panties as outerwear for women, but these trends tend not to last long. Bloomers as outerwear became popular for a time in the mid-19th century as a decent style of trousers for women who wanted to participate in sporting activities that would be hampered by skirts. Another way you might have seen a woman wearing these shorts in public, in earlier days, was as part of swimsuits.
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