Wordymology is a series in which the editors at The Free Dictionary explore the origins of the names of things.
Let’s undress all the weird ways your two-legged garments got their names.
Jeans, Dungarees, and Denim
the ubiquitous blue-hued pants popular the world over, but their
etymologies are literally all over the map.
The word “jeans” comes from Genes, the Old French word for
“Genoa,” the city in Italy where the fabric once known as “jene fustian” was
manufactured.
You have to go farther east for the source of “dungarees,” which comes
from dungrī, a Hindi term for the fabric that dungarees were
originally made from, which itself was named for the district in Mumbai where
the fabric originated.
“Denim” derives from the French phrase de Nîmes, which
literally means “of Nîmes,” referring to the city where it was manufactured:
Nîmes, France.
Khakis and Chinos
The names of the casual pants known as khakis and chinos are based not on places
but on their color. The fabric known as “khaki” was used in the mid-19th
century for uniforms of British soldiers in India and later became the official
color for British army uniforms. Its name comes from an Urdu word meaning
“dusty,” referring to its tan color.
Chinos get their name from chino fabric—a coarse, twilled cotton whose
etymology is less certain. It is thought to come from an American Spanish term
meaning “yellowish,” referring its original tan color, and perhaps ultimately
from the Spanish word for “Chinese” or “from China.”
Fancy Pants, Sporty Pants
They all have two legs in common, but pants are designed in all manner of
shapes and for all kinds of activities. If you're looking for wide, flowing
pants, you want palazzo pants. Palazzo is
the Italian word for “palace,” likely in honor of the Palazzo Pitti, where such
pants are said to have been first worn as part of an outfit called “palazzo
pajamas” that incorporated a blouse along with the pants. (“Pajamas” comes from an Urdu term
meaning “loose-fitting trousers.”)
If you prefer cropped, close-fitting pants, you want capri pants, or “capris,” which were
created and found initial popularity on the Italian island of Capri.
You may have heard the terms “capris” and “pedal pushers” used interchangeably (most
likely because both styles are cropped), but there is a difference: “pedal
pushers” are usually longer in length and were originally made to be worn by
bicyclists—hence the name.
Speaking of pants worn while riding, let’s not forget jodhpurs, pants that fit tightly from
knee to ankle and are traditionally worn for horseback riding. They get their
name from Jodhpur, an Indian city known for its wool and other textiles.
Today, many types of pants designed for exercise are made at least
partially from the synthetic elastic fabric spandex, whose name
was fittingly coined from an anagram of the word “expands.”
We can’t expound upon spandex without mentioning the leotard, which can refer to two
distinct articles of clothing, depending on where you are in the world and
whether the term is singular or plural. The singular “leotard” typically refers
to a tight-fitting suit for athletic or acrobatic pursuits that may or may not
include a leg covering. In the US and Canada, though, the plural “leotards” is
sometimes used as a synonym for tights or stockings. You can thank 19th-century
French acrobat Jules Léotard for the name, though it was not used until after
his death. During his life, Léotard called the garment a maillot, a term now used for a
tight-fitting, one-piece bathing suit (whose origin is, suitably, from an Old
French term meaning “swaddling clothes”).
Knickerbockers, Breeches, and Bloomers
Although we have France, India, and Italy to thank for many of our pants’
names, a few come from the United States, including the one whose name is
perhaps the most fun to say: knickerbockers. At one time, both the term “knickerbocker”
and the style of breeches it described were widely
associated with Dutch immigrants in the US. This connection is usually
attributed to the excellently named Diedrich Knickerbocker, the fictitious
“author” of Washington Irving’s satire A
History of New York, which focused on the state’s Dutch settlers. The close
association of the word "knickerbocker" with New York led to the term
being used for the name of the New York Knicks basketball team. (The shortened
form, “knickers,” is used in the UK as a synonym for “panties,” including when
rudely telling someone what they should not get in a twist.)
On the topic of undergarments and New York, bloomers—those loose pants that women
wore under their skirts starting in the mid-19th century—are named for a real
New York native, Amelia Jenks Bloomer. A social reformer and women’s rights activist, Bloomer popularized the
reformed dress style of a short skirt and full trousers that became known as
the Bloomer costume, or bloomers.
The final
leg
You’ll notice that the word “pants” and several specific types of pants
sound as if they are plural, even though they refer to single items. The same
goes for many other single objects that consist of two connected parts, such as
glasses and scissors, which we also refer to with the phrase “a pair of.” When
it comes to pants, the “pair” alludes to the fact that there are two openings
for the legs.
The singular word “pant” is sometimes used, but predominantly within the
fashion industry, as in: “The designer has come out with a fresh variation on
her trademark pant.”
Finally, let’s undress the word “pants” itself. “Pants” is a
shortening of “pantaloons,” which were a snug-fitting
style of men’s trousers popular in the 19th century.
“Pantaloons,” in turn, took their name from the “pantaloon,” a masked stock
character in commedia dell'arte, a form of stage comedy popular in Italy from
the 16th to 18th centuries. The name of the pantaloon, portrayed as a foolish
old man in tight trousers and slippers, was derived from Saint Pantaleon, a
3rd-century Roman physician. That’s a lot of history packed into two legs!
If these fun pants facts haven’t bored the pants off you, be a smarty pants
and share them with your friends!
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