Panties

[Laurence Horn]

On Nov 20, 2011, at 9:57 AM, Ronald Butters wrote:

> "Panties" is a useful word. It distinguishes one kind of garment from another.

Unless you're British, in which case (I'm given to understand) "knickers" is, and does.  I wonder if "moist knickers" induces the same squeamishness on the other side of the pond that "moist panties" evidently does here.

LH

>
> Men and boys wear shorts and boxers. Women wear panties. All wear underwear (or go without).
>
> "Tom is a panties fetishist" and "Dick is a boxers fetishist" suggest rather different things about the sexual orientations of Tom and Dick.
>
> "Chris always wears name-brand panties" suggests that Chris is female, or a male behaving atypically.
>
> By the way, nobody I know wears "smalls."
>
> On Nov 20, 2011, at 10:44 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
>> At 11/20/2011 05:17 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>
>>> On Sun, Nov 20, 2011 at 12:47 AM, Garson O'Toole
>>> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> AARP's article "Things We're Too Old to Say"
>>> http://www.aarp.org/entertainment/books/info-03-2011/slang-we-should-drop.html
>>> includes "panties".
>>>
>>> How asinine!!
>>>
>>> _Panties_ is, in fact, no longer part of my active vocabulary, but
>>> only because, sadly, I have no use for this word, not finding women's
>>> undies as riveting a topic of conversation as I did in my youth, when
>>> even a glimpse of a feminine kneecap was a breath-taking experience.
>>> And, IME, even back in the day, the number of occasions when panties
>>> were a topic of conversation bordered on the non-existent
>>
>> Wilson, are you before or after the age of panty raids?  :-)  They
>> were not uncommon in my era.
>>
>> Joel
>>
>>> and, when
>>> panties did happen to be under discussion, the traditional BE unisex
>>> term, _drawers_ [draUz], was used.
>>>
>>> BTW, is "panties" even considered to be slang? IMO, it's the standard term.
>>>
>>> Besides, the youth of today find what they call "grannie-panties" to
>>> be an object of derision. Nobody wears them, anymore. So, why would
>>> anyone discuss them, in the first place?
>>>
>>> --
>>> -Wilson
>>> -----
>>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
>>> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>> -Mark Twain
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org