underpants

Etymology

It is formed from English under- + pants.^[2][3][4][5] Pants, recorded from 1840 for trousers or drawers, goes back to pantaloons, and so to the comic stage character Pantaloon, Italian Pantalone.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A garment worn under outer clothing on the lower body: Etymonline finds the word by 1871.^[3] The dictionaries' own dates are much later: 1920–25 in Dictionary.com, 1925 in Merriam-Webster,^[4][5][6] and 1931 in the OED, in R. Campbell's Georgiad.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word pants was limited at first to vulgar and commercial use, and Oliver Wendell Holmes in 1846 called it "a word not made for gentlemen".^[3] In the United States the word took the place of drawers and knickers.^[3] Merriam-Webster's definitions describe short or long garments and equate them with drawers,^[7][5] but the American Heritage Dictionary describes them as having short legs or none,^[8] and the Oxford Dictionary of English as worn especially by men or boys.^[9] Collins notes that the word is often shortened to pants.^[10]

Timeline

• by 1871 – an undergarment for the lower body.^[3] Dictionary.com dates it to 1920–25, Merriam-Webster to 1925, and the OED to 1931.^[4][5][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An undergarment worn next to the skin and covering the lower body, usually with short legs or none; briefs.^{[8][10][2][9]}
2. Long or short pants worn under outer clothes; drawers.^[5][7]

Related words

• pants
• pantaloons
• under

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins