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 voted YABU because it’s pants, no matter who you are, pants.

I refer you to the late great Victoria Wood as evidence.

“I remember when pants were pants.”

Not panties. Never, ever, panties. It's a banned word in my house cos it makes me want to vomit.

Otherwise call them what you want, I tend to say 'pants'

But never panties 🤮

😂😂

Are you a man?

Thinking about it..... children are more likely NOT to call them knickers.
The Pantosausus song that they all learn in primary school is all about pants !
(edit : I don't know the actual words to the song. I hope as part of the campaign they do mention the different words families use to describe underwear so children know exactly what the song is saying)

I had a late family member who called them drawers too.
We call them pants, boys are called boxers (or pants for the lo) I’m not fond of the word knickers tbh but I also wouldn’t question it. I have used it on occasion. Underwear also suffices. Panties is just no.

They are knickers, which definitely isn't a childlike word.
Although I always call them pants, my mum did too.

Thanks for this thread; I now feel justified in believing that the vile word 'panties' is just plain wrong!

How prim 😂 was he being ironic?

or was he Jacob Reece-Mogg?

Who has six children!

Panties reminds me of when we visited my late paternal grandmother. My mother would have to sit at the chenille table-clothed table & listen to her MIL while my dad fished the News of The World out from under the sofa cushions. As he discarded pages I picked them up and read them. Always a mention of panties. Often a vicar knocking them off washing lines.

In primary school, they refer to them as 'pants' because it's unisex term that applies to both girls' knickers and boys' underpants, and classes are mixed.

I think that's why I would only ever say 'pants' in a comedic or deliberately unsexy context. I'd only ever say it ironically, for comic effect.

Knickers reminds me of the awful Carry On films and Syd James!

I quite like 'over the shoulder boulder holder' for bra, as heard in the film Beaches!

Oh I loved Victoria Wood, the very mention of a sash window makes me laugh and if I drive through Kimberley, a lovely little village near me, all I can hear is VW talking about her best friend Kimburrrrleeee ! Sadly missed.

@LillyPJ you called! I used to work with a woman who called knickers ‘nix’ and swimming costumes ‘bathers’ .She was always getting a new ‘bather’ for her ‘hols’. Drove me nuts! Anyway due to all the mention of knickers I have unfortunately got I think it was Benny Hill in my head shouting ‘knickers, knackers, knockers ‘.

@Berryslacks I believe that was Les Dawson as Cosmo Small piece. But now I've got that 'Benny Hill chasing girls' music in my head. Thanks a bunch!

They're pants to me. Knickers is ok, but not my go-to word. Neither is specifically a child's name for them. Panties is cringe. Makes me think of tiny, lacy things that only women in "erotic literature" wear 😂

Definitely knickers (or knick-knacks in this house!). Hate it when people say pants!

Knickers. Men and children wear pants.

@LillyPJ Ah yes of course Les Dawson now I remember! Cosmo Small piece that’s a blast from the past. Sorry about the ear worm 😂.

"Ave you seen me FRIEND??" 😂

Nothing guaranteed to cheer me like a little bit of Victoria Wood.

Knickers sounds quite twee and a bit Enid Blyton (if she wrote about underwear) to me
somehow. Something about it makes me cringe a bit outside of the ‘knickers in a twist’ phrase.

Maybe it’s because I’m in Scotland and it’s not used as much here (never really paid attention to it though so who knows)? Or could just be a personal family thing. We never used it, it was always just pants in our household when I was a kid and what we call them now with our own kids.

Panties should never be uttered by anyone ever.

@doodleschnoodle in the Enid Blyton boarding school stories they did wear "knickers" but they seemed to be more like modesty shorts that went over the top of the actual underwear.
They had pockets !
If you didn't have a hanky in your knicker pocket Matron got annoyed.
I think it was Jo who failed to darn the hole in her knicker pocket so her 10 Shilling note ,(that she wasn't meant to have) fell out.