Pair of knickerbockers, or breeches, the Netherlands, early 21st century (TRC 2020.0888).Perhaps a somewhat dubious subject, but a few days ago I asked my (British) wife about the origins of the word ‘ knickers’. I knew that knickers in Britain are generally referred to as ‘panties’ in American English, but where did the word knickers come from?

My wife suggested that the word ‘knickers’ was related to ‘knickerbockers’. Why not? It is a small step from one to the other. Actually, one of the dictionaries I consulted stated that ‘knickers’ was an abbreviation, used in America, for knickerbockers. So there you are: a man in America may be wearing knickers.

And what are knickerbockers? It is apparently a word that originated in America, but where, how, what and when?

Knickerbockers are normally associated with baggy trousers that reach to just below the knee. It is a garment that somehow we tend to associate with (middle-aged) men playing golf. There is a wonderful example of a pair of ‘knickerbockers’ in the TRC Collection. It is catalogued under number TRC 2020.0888 and was made in the Netherlands in the early 21st century.

Actually, the garment in the TRC collection was described for the catalogue by Gillian as a pair of breeches, not knickerbockers. So, in British English: knickers refer to ladies underwear, while knickerbockers, sometimes abbreviated to knickers in American English, refer to the trousers worn by male golf players, which in British English are traditionally called breeches.

Late 19th century pair of drawers with open crotch, the Netherlands (TRC 2018.1906).It is not difficult to see the link. British English ‘knickers’ underwear used to be much longer than the scanty garments of today. They were baggy underpants reaching down to below the knees, in shape comparable to the American knickers or knickerbockers outer wear worn by men. There may have been a small difference: women's underpants were often left open at the crotch, for obvious reasons. 

In Britain and America, such long baggy underpants were also named 'pantaloons' or 'drawers'. 

There you are: In England a woman wears knickers, in America she wears panties. And a golf-playing man in England wearing knickers, well, perhaps he had better go asap to America.

But I now have to make a confession. As a young boy in Holland I was always playing with knickers, and I was actually pretty good at it. I collected hundreds of them, and kept them in a box under my bed. You may wonder about me now. Actually, I was not playing with my mum’s underwear, but with knikkers, in English called marbles. The word knickerbocker is derived from a Dutch word, knikkerbakker, someone who ‘bakes’ (ceramic) knikkers. So the reader does not have to worry about me.

Diedrich Knickerbocker, as portrayed in an illustrated edition of Washington Irvings' History of New York.The Web will tell you all about the origin of the word knickerbocker. It became more popularly known when Washington Irving used it for the main character for his book: A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, published in 1809. The name he chose was Diedrich Knickerbocker, and the surname became commonly used in New York in those days for descendants of the 17th century Dutch settlers in Nieuw Amsterdam / New York.

Apparently my Dutch forebears used to walk around in trousers that reached to just below the knees. The name was later applied as a nickname for all of those living in Manhattan, and it even gave its name to the New York Knickerbockers, a basketball team, more commonly known as the New York Knicks (note: not ‘New York Knickers’). All of them knikkerbakkers.

In modern Dutch such half-long trousers are jocularly called drollenvangers, but I will spare you the translation. Finally, my wife insisted on mentioning the Knickerbocker Glory, which was (is?) some form of sundae (apparently named after the Knickerbocker Hotel in Manhattan).

For more information, see the fascinating blogs in the series ‘Recollections’, and in particular ‘Bloomers, pantaloons, and knickers – Oh my’, 10 April 2011. You may also enjoy reading another blog, with a comparable title, by Amy Olilla, 'Bloomers and knickers and drawers, Oh my!'

PS: The name of Diedrich Knickerbocker is a bit confusing; Diedrich is a German first name, certainly not Dutch. And ‘Dutch’ is the English term for the people from the Netherlands, who call the Germans ‘Duitsers’, who call themselves also Deutsche,  but the Dutch speak a language which they used to call ‘Diets’. Can you still follow it? Don't worry, all part of being European.

Willem Vogelsang, 20 April 2022