To call knickers… knickers?!

[Elroq]

Ridiculous conversation with my friend today. We were out in town shopping and I said I wanted to go into a particular shop to buy some knickers. She gave a little laugh and said ‘Knickers? Are we eight?’ And I was like ‘Huh?’

Apparently she thinks that knickers are what kids call their underwear, whereas adults need to call them other things. I have literally never heard this theory, and was like ‘Well what do you call yours?!’ She tells me that she just says ‘pants’ or ‘underwear’, but to me ‘pants’ are what blokes wear or what Americans call trousers, and ‘underwear’ isn’t specific enough cos there are bras etc which are also underwear. Knickers is a perfectly fine word! She then suggested ‘panties’ which we both agreed made us want to vomit.

i’m pretty sure I made her argument look ridiculous, not least because the shop itself called them knickers. But please tell me that I’ve not been mis-labelling my smalls for the last 25 years??

Pants or skidders.
I can tolerate ‘knickers' but it is a bit cringe, panties - just no.

I see your "panties" and raise you "scanties", which I have heard before. Personally, I wear knickers.

Yes, but panties is worse.
Bleeuurgh.

This.

Nursery has got my daughter calling them nick nicks... especially confusing when she asks for a nick nick party (a picnic). We use pants or boxers here... knickers is fine. Panties is not...

Ewwwwww.
No.

It's the word panties that makes me feel queasy. It always sounds so seedy.

Knickers for me. Or drawers.

Pants is what DH wears and I’d rather lose the power of speech than call them panties.

Knickers, undies or kecks, never panties bleugh!

I'd call them knickers, we actually usually call them knicks in our house, but we love a shortening of words!

Underwear includes socks knickers and bras. Knickers is more specific
and vests and slips

Oh my God! My mum used to refer to mine as ‘Knick knacks!’ I hadn’t thought of that for about 30 years! All of a sudden it’s 1988 again!

My DGM wore drawers or bloomers.

My exH wore shreddies.

I wear knickers.

It's not something I'd get my knickers in a twist about but...😁 knickers is a much better word than the alternatives. In the Anglo-Americansphere most of us inhabit, pants implies trousers, underwear isn't specific and I won't use panties on principle. It makes me heave! I like drawers, but it's a bit odd in the world outside Victorian literature and suggests a garment so voluminous they make big knickers from M&S look like something you'd get at an Ann Summers shop by comparison. Ditto bloomers - a fun word, but anachronistic. So knickers it is.

Dd's bf used to call them 'unmenshionables'..

Always called them pants.

Knickers was what rude people said when they were saying no/disagreeing.

Also Scottish and also say pants. I find pants a far more neutral word - I'd be embarrassed to talk about my knickers, it seems a bit rude!

I grew up in New Zelaand. Undies is the most common term, knickers 2nd in line, pants sometimes - usually said to little kids running about "with no pants on". Though rare for adults as pants can also refer to trousers - I got in trouble when I first arrived in the UK complimenting my new work colleague on the shade of her new pants!.

Panties is blurggh... I associate it with American crime novels where "the dead woman was found with her panties missing/around her ankles/torn off" etc. Or a creepy man suggesting creepy things to do with 'panties'.

My favourite Kiwi advert in the link - Undies vs Togs Bear in mind "togs" are any form of swimsuit, including budgie smugglers.

Pantaloons ?

Same. I even dislike the way the word looks. 😂

So what do you say that’s less ‘mimsy’?

We were discussing the M and S probs today at coffee break and one of us said "I hope they don't go bust because where else does anyone buy knickers". We all agree, nobody was bothered or embarrassed including our male colleague

I sometimes call them that 😂
Although I also sometimes call bottoms (as in bum) derrière (I hope I've spelt that correct) or But-tocks.
I like calling my bra "brasserie" but I say it dramatically as "brazzz-ee-air" 😂
I'm a bit odd 😂😂

My older teen daughter and son call them ‘briefs’ when hanging out the laundry because they are sometimes described like that when sold online. They find the word hilarious.

I find the word "pants" to be a bit of a comedy word. I'd use it if I was messing about or joking: "I'm going to sit in my pants on the sofa all day" type of thing.

"Panties" makes me cringe, it's a horrible word. It's on a par with my pensioner mum insisting on calling all cats "pussies" which she does without any sense of double entendre.

Knickers is fine. If I'm talking to my DD I might say knick-knacks, just to get her to roll her eyes at me.

I draw the line at calling men's underwear "knickers" - but I have occasionally heard someone do that, usually when they mean men's briefs. Absolutely fucking not.

I'd usually call men's underwear either boxers or just underwear.

Honestly never realised I had so many internalised rules about the words for underwear but apparently I do 😂