[Ads-l] Long-haul trucker's lexicon + a surprise

[Joel Berson]

"Drawers, n.  ... A garment for the lower part of the body and legs ..."  1567--.  And presumably respectable in the early 18th century; the OED includes the following two quotations:

1711   R. Steele Spectator No. 51. ⁋5   Makes a Country Squire strip to his Holland Drawers.
1717   Lady M. W. Montagu Let. 1 Apr. (1965) I. 326   The first piece of my dresse is a pair of drawers, very full, that reach to my shoes.

Or perhaps the 18th century was more lascivious than Eliot's 19th -- the OED has only two quotations later than these, 1791 and 1893.

Joel

      From: Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
 To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
 Sent: Friday, June 2, 2017 10:06 AM
 Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Long-haul trucker's lexicon + a surprise
   
But did "drawers" then have the potentially lascivious* sense?

Mark

* Love that word, so synesthetically suggestive.


On Jun 2, 2017 7:31 AM, "Stephen Goranson" <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:

So of her curled fronts: Mrs. Glegg had doubtless the glossiest and
crispest brown curls in her drawers, as well as curls in various degrees of
fuzzy laxness...

Mill on the Floss

   

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