Panties vs underwear

Sake

Mon, Feb 24 2020, 11:06 pm

“gitch” or “drawers” ... in polite company, “bloomers”

And we grew up neither British nor American. In our language it was “quecas” for boys or girls and honestly I can’t remember one teacher ever having to use the word!

amother

Teal

Mon, Feb 24 2020, 11:24 pm

"Adriana recovered first. 'Panties is a vile word,' she said. She frowned and emptied the caipirinha pitcher into her glass. . . .
"'I'm just pointing out its relative grossness. All women hate the word. Panties. Just say it—panties. It makes my skin crawl.'"
(Lauren Weisberger, Chasing Harry Winston. Downtown Press, 2008)

amother

White

Mon, Feb 24 2020, 11:37 pm

amother [ Green ] wrote:

secular people wear undershirts. The one without sleeves has a most unfortunate nickname.

Right. Undershirts are sold in every men's department store, not to mention places like Wal-Mart etc. It's not just frum people.
Funny side note, I've read that very religious Mormons have special undergarments they wear, both men and women.

tryinghard

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 12:14 am

Actually my sister vastly prefers “panties” over “underwear” - she hears it as a more classy word. She would never say “armpit” - it’s “underarm” please... and her daughter wet her panties. Not sure what she will say if/when she has boys IyH. I guess “briefs” or “boxers”, depending on what’s being worn.
I’m not so classy. I’ll stick with plain old generic “underwear, thanks. 😂

amother

Khaki

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 1:52 am

We say panties for girls and underpants for boys in our house. Underwear means both the bottoms and the tops. I grew up with that terminology and we're not chassidish. Actually, my mother is a Yekke and my father comes from a mixed Polish/Czech background.

amother

Goldenrod

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 6:46 am

amother [ White ] wrote:

they are called wife beaters undershirts that are sleveless

amother

Denim

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 6:54 am

amother [ Goldenrod ] wrote:

they are called wife beaters undershirts that are sleveless

No, that's a colloquial term to refer to them. Your average secular individual knows the word but wouldn't refer to them that way. It refers to a particular white sleeves tank top that certain low class ppl wear as a top but normal educated ppl dont use that term amongst company or children lol

Also secular ppl dont wear undershirts to the level Chassidim do. Everyone wears them with Chassidim all little girls, boys, slips as well. That's not common in the US.

lech lecha08

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 8:06 am

amother [ Aqua ] wrote:

We call it knickers here in England. (name on package is usually briefs though I've never heard anyone using that).

And boys underwear are pants.

I was working as an OT in a Yerushalayim hospital and my patient was British, only spoke English. the PT was telling her she should wear pants under her skirt for therapy sessions. She said "I'm wearing pants" and started to show the therapist her underwear. I quickly said "trousers! trousers!"

shabbatiscoming

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 8:59 am

amother [ Saddlebrown ] wrote:

Gatkes is chassidish mens boxers. The long white ones.

Huh? Gatkes are long underwear, the ones people wear in the winter, nothing to do with chassidim.

lech lecha08

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 9:04 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

What in the world is creepy about panties????

I wouldn't call it creepy. But it does bring Victoria's Secret-type to my mind as in bra and panties.
We just call them undies and tachtos (from tachtonim) in semi-Hebrew

Odelyah

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 9:17 am

amother [ Denim ] wrote:

it's a very outdated gross colloquial term that hopefully no one uses anymore. I doubt younger secular people even know it. (I hope?) They are just sleeveless undershirts.

shabbatiscoming

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 9:34 am

lech lecha08 wrote:

I wouldn't call it creepy. But it does bring Victoria's Secret-type to my mind as in bra and panties.
We just call them undies and tachtos (from tachtonim) in semi-Hebrew

So interesting. The first thing that comes to mind when I hear panties is actually a little kid, as in a nickname for underpants.

nchr

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 9:42 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

So interesting. The first thing that comes to mind when I hear panties is actually a little kid, as in a nickname for underpants.

I thought it is just the official english word.

Last edited by nchr on Tue, Feb 08 2022, 11:40 am; edited 1 time in total

amother

Green

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 10:11 am

Odelyah wrote:

it's a very outdated gross colloquial term that hopefully no one uses anymore. I doubt younger secular people even know it. (I hope?) They are just sleeveless undershirts.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/0......html

Where is Squishy? This has a PC diatribe written all over it.

tigerwife

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 10:26 am

Odelyah wrote:

it's a very outdated gross colloquial term that hopefully no one uses anymore. I doubt younger secular people even know it. (I hope?) They are just sleeveless undershirts.

As a teen (not terribly long ago) in a JPF camp, we called them wife-beaters or tank tops. No one freaked out. It was just also something worn by an old- fashioned, beer-bellied, cigar-toting, cranky neighbor whose eye contact you avoided while bringing out the garbage.

And I’m feeling largely insensitive but the word panties does not evoke anything zxual or inappropriate in my brain either. It’s just a cutesy nickname for underpants, childish to use in public (imagine your Gyno said she will administer a boob exam instead of breast exam- just not professional.).

Come to think of it, I find nothing wrong with the phrase “fanny pack” either- sounds better than bum bag to me! I do prefer the term “belt bag”, though.

So, do I win the bumpkin award?

naturalmom5

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 10:29 am

amother [ Coffee ] wrote:

For some reason, I do find the word "panties" more explicit/crude than "underwear," but it's not a hill I want to die on.

So just say bloomers Very Happy

amother

Coffee

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 10:32 am

Trying to figure this out:

Maybe the word "panties" has a connotation of needing to be attractive, whereas "underwear" is a purely functional item. And aside for 4-year-old girls who need everything to be glittery or flowered, choosing undergarments primarily based on attractiveness is at the least something to be private about.

But as I said before, not a hill I want to die on. I'll just stick with "underwear," and let everyone use whatever term keeps their knickers from getting too wadded. (Now THAT was crude.)

(ETA: LOL that my post was just responded to above! Crossposted.)

hodeez

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 10:33 am

That's another question I have: does lingerie mean something else in Boro Park? Where I'm from lingerie is VS style undergarments, but here I see regular shabbos robes and hosiery sold in stores named "the lingerie shop" or the like. Definite culture shock on my side..

shabbatiscoming

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 10:39 am

hodeez wrote:

lingerie literally means undergarments, so these shops are not using the term wrong, per say, but stretching the use of the word. Thats all.