khakis/chinos

[Lynne Murphy]

>
> When did 'khakis' become 'chinos' and why?
>
> Bob Wachal

For me, they were chinos before they were khakis (this I think is due to
age, not to the primacy of 'chinos).  Chinos were the big thing to have
when I was pre-adolescent in the late 70s.  They were not necessarily
khaki in color.  I had all sorts of colors--including bright yellow and
bright red (how embarrassing).

Looking in the AHD, it seems that chino refers to the kind of fabric,
whereas khaki refers to the color, so maybe that's why 'chinos' became
popular as a word--since the color range was expanded.

Lynne



Dr M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

phone +44-(0)1273-678844
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