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??