knickers

This word is a good example of how English changes from one place to another. In the UK, "knickers" is the normal everyday word for women's or girls' underwear. It is informal, but it is not usually rude. In American English, though, it usually means "knickerbockers" - loose, old-fashioned trousers that end just below the knee, often seen in old photos of golfers or newsboys.

You may also hear it in the common idiom "Don't get your knickers in a twist!" This means "don't get so upset" or "don't make a big fuss" about something small. It is usually said in a light, joking way.

The story of "knickers" begins not in England, but in New York. The term is shortened from "knickerbockers," a name made famous by Washington Irving in his 1809 book A History of New York, written under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker. The illustrations in the book showed Dutch settlers wearing loose-fitting breeches gathered at the knee. These garments became so associated with the name that "knickerbockers" (and later "knickers") became the standard term for that style of trousers.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the term underwent a linguistic split. In the United States, "knickers" remained a description of knee-length trousers, particularly for boys and sportsmen. In British English, however, the term was adopted to describe the baggy undergarments women wore beneath their skirts, which shared a similar gathered shape. Over time, the "trousers" meaning faded in Britain, leaving "knickers" to refer exclusively to female undergarments.

Today, while the fashion of wearing knickerbocker trousers has largely passed into history (excepting perhaps on the golf course or in period dramas), the word remains alive and well in the British lexicon. Understanding the context is vital: telling a British person you like their knickers might lead to a very awkward misunderstanding if you are actually admiring their trousers! Whether used to describe laundry or to tell a friend not to get "in a twist," it remains a quintessentially expressive piece of the English language.