Monday, May 17, 2021

Speaking English

By Celeste

You’re right to say that here in Britain, we call what you call “pantyhose,” we call “tights.” You ask as to what we call what you call “tights” and the rather confusing answer is “tights.” 

It’s up to the listener or reader to judge as to whether the speaker or writer is referring to what you would call pantyhose or what you would call tights. It will usually be pantyhose. What you call tights might sometimes be called “dance tights” to make it clear as to what is being referred to, but this would only occasionally be the case.

There are quite a lot of transatlantic differences in terminology, of course. Some which are found with regard to what we wear.

In Britain “pumps” are gym shoes, worn by both men and women. What you call “pumps” have traditionally been called “court shoes” in Britain, but that is a term falling out of use and shoes with heels are now usually simply referred to as “heels” or more specifically, the type of heel – kitten, high, stiletto, etc.   

“Hose” is a term rarely used in speech in Britain, but “hosiery” is sometimes used on signage in stores and in catalogues/catalogs.

Ladies’ stockings are held up by wearing a “suspender belt” not, as you would say, a “garter belt” with suspenders clipped onto the stocking. Garters are individual elasticated and usually highly decorative bands worn on one leg, ostensibly, to hold up the stocking but, actually, purely for decorative adornment. A very different type of garter used to be worn by men just below the knee to keep their socks up – a practice which finally died out here in the early 1950s.

Women and girls in Britain rarely refer to wearing “panties,” though may occasionally refer to them as “pants.” They are referred to as a “panty” in the context of “panty liners,” but otherwise, girls and women refer to them as “knickers.” Unlike in the USA, where Imen and boys are more likely to wear what you would call “knickers,” here in Britain the term “knickers” can have the same implicit erotic undertone as “panties” may have with you. Only in certain parts of northern England are men’s underpants still occasionally called “knickers” in common parlance.

So British women and girls are most likely to refer to their panties as knickers, but they are sold as “briefs,” a term the wearers may occasionally use.

As to underwear generally, I notice that women in the USA sometimes refer to ladies’ underwear as “lahngeray.” In Britain, it’s pronounced “lawngeree.” Both pronunciations are wrong – it’s “lahngeree.”

I find these differences fascinating. I hope you do, too.


Wearing Baulah
Wearing Baulah


Charles Hawtrey femulating in the 1969 British film Carry On Again Doctor.
Charles Hawtrey femulating in the 1969 British film Carry On Again Doctor.

18 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 17, 2021

    "Opaques" and "Sheers" are fairly common UK terms to make the hosiery distinction, as in "she was wearing a dress with black opaques"

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  2. A few other relevant differences in British and American English:

    In the UK, what we call a sweater is a "jumper". What we call a "jumper"--the traditional schoolgirl outfit of a skirt with a bibbed top and over-the-shoulder straps--is a pinafore.

    I believe the flexible flat shoes we call "ballet shoes or slippers" would be "plimsolls" to a Brit.

    And a hairstyle difference: What we call "bangs," they call "fringe."

    Dani

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  3. I challenge anyone to find a CARRY ON film that does NOT involve cross dressing! (lol)

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  4. Although Pantyhose has gone out of fashion here in the US (read my Femulate post for more info)
    http://www.femulate.org/2019/10/pantyhose-ups-and-downs.html

    When I travel in the UK Most business women still wear pantyhose (black) also they love what we call tights 80 denier. I was amazed at the huge display of tights in the H&M. All black with denier from 20 thru 80 and in my size too!

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  5. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, "America and Great Britain, two great countries separated by a common language".

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    Replies
    1. AnonymousMay 17, 2021

      You beat me to it!
      Velma

      Delete
  6. AnonymousMay 17, 2021

    I would think femulating in the UK would be much more acceptably pleasant than in the USA .

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    Replies
    1. perhaps in many of the larger town and city centres now, that is the case in blighty. but not in villages and smaller towns, or parts of larger towns and cities that are fairly insalubrious and/or with a heavy concentration of what used to be called council estates (i suppose the nearest american equuivelents would be the projects and trailer parks?)

      i live in a reasonably pleasant and respectable suburb only a few miles from one of the most trans-friendly city centres in the uk. yet despite that, i have never even considered travelling on public transport dressed thanks to the likelihood of gangs of youths and other non-trans-tolerant (or even gay-tolerant) types either riding on them or loitering at the stops and stations!

      Delete
    2. AnonymousMay 18, 2021

      Gina is right
      I live on a "council estate" and cannot go out of my apartment in daylight
      There are a lot of non trans tollerant people in my area
      Lucy

      Delete
  7. AnonymousMay 17, 2021

    In the UK men's "suspenders"as in "belt and suspenders" are, I believe, called braces. Not sure what they then call the things orthodontists put on your teeth.

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    Replies
    1. It is often believed by Americans that there are no Orthodontists in the UK (I'm not one of them). Sorry, that was a hit below the belt.

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    2. why didn't Alfred E Newman get hit teeth fixed?

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    3. Not only that, Orthotic/orthopedic braces are referred to as 'calipers'.
      Velma

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  8. In UK if you go shopping for hose you might be directed to the gardening section. Where do the Americans learn their English?

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  9. Just when I thought I knew everything there was to know about hosiery, along comes a great article like this! Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go put on my knickers and tights and get to work;)

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  10. AnonymousMay 18, 2021

    If I understand this correctly an American woman has a wallet in her purse, but if she was British she would have a purse in her (hand)bag.
    Penny from Edinburgh.

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    Replies
    1. Handbag and purse are used pretty interchangeably on the western side of the Atlantic, although a purse is usually thought to be smaller than a handbag

      Delete
  11. AnonymousMay 18, 2021

    It is not just the two sides of the Pond, which speak different varieties of English, different generations do too. For example, what my mother would have called a petticoat is now called a slip.
    Penny from Edinburgh.

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