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??

I call them pants but call them knickers it's fine, your friend is being a bit daft about it.

In some Victorian era literature (e.g. Little Lord Fauntleroy), ‘knickers’ were the knee length trousers worn by small boys.
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/victorian-boys-knickers-hold-huge-302370917

In my case that would be totally inaccurate. Knickers it is.

Knickers here for me and DD or sometimes pants. Pants or boxers for DH.
I hate panties with passion, briefs is too specific and not true in my case (for the same reason I don’t use thongs or shorts)
However English is my second language so I choose my words carefully .

Of course they're knickers.

I've also called them 'underpinnings', 'unmentionables', and 'granny pants'. My family know what I mean.

Come to think of it, we also call then keks.

Glad you said this, I thought I was going mad. My mum used it as a swear word, I hate the word now.

Same.

Though I have a friend from NI who calls them pantses :-)

I always feel the word 'panties' has a slightly naughty ring to it, as in Animal House/ 'panty raid' shenanigans.

I still call them knickers, but where we are now (US) they are commonly called underpants.

Knickers. Panties are what cross dressers call them

I’m from the NE too and have only ever heard trousers referred to as trousers. Pants is American for trousers to me and everyone I know!

Also, knickers (which is the correct term 😜) doesn’t even look like a real word now!😂

It’s weird until reading this thread I hadn’t realised that I had replaced saying knickers as a kid with pants now. I think the only time I say knickers now is in “don’t get your knickers in a twist”.

Odd, not sure when that changed.

Haha love this. Undies is a thing but having lived in UK for 35 years it’s definitely pants or knickers here. Mostly pants but sometimes knickers.

last time in NZ I was slightly discombobulated by my BIL saying “oh like your pants” when I realised it was to do with my tie dyed baggy trousers and not my knickers.

Panties can seriously do one, shudder. Awful.

We call them scants, in fond and loving memory of my late Grandma Jane. This is what she called them - for both sexes.

Horse has bolted, but I hate that most brits call underwear pants. It makes no sense.

I'm from liverpool were pants are, thankfully, still trousers!

I was one of two girls and we/my mum said knickers. Though now I have a boy and a girl so I usually just say "pants" as it serves both male and female versions. I'm wary though that in the US and other parts of the world (including NE England?) people say pants for trousers so the words knickers/underpants/undercrackers etc serve a useful purpose.

Panties is horrible. Coy and porny at the same time.

My MIL calls them 'knicks'. And I've never felt so uncomfortable as I did when my dad called them 'panties'. Horrid. 😫

My sister told me with much amusement that in her first term of uni she met a student from Hong Kong who was very smartly dressed and told her proudly that his father had taken him shopping for "pants and suspenders". He meant smart trousers with braces which she luckily realised after boggling about the ladies underwear he might have on under his outer clothing!

My mother gave me such a telling off when I was eight for saying the word knickers I never said it again. I call them undies.

Yes this!

We’ve taken to calling them bloomers in our house which makes me chuckle more than it probably should. Knickers is fine though, obviously.

knickers, underwear is general term for all under garments.

They are briefs, the word beginning with a silent k is naff !

Always called them knickers. To me pants are trousers.

I don't know if it's just me, but I always find "knickers" feels a bit sexualised. Maybe because it's feminine?
I call them pants to DDs.