Author: Donald Lowery
Date:   12-04-02 09:52

Thought you might want to know more...

Author: Donald Lowery (---.accesscom.net)
Date: 12-04-02 09:51

There are a lot of meanings that have grown out of the word--Knickers.

With Grannies, Kaz is close to my teachings from the family definitions. In Golf, Knickers mean something else. In various cultures too. However...

Just for the sake of clarification for the masses that read these rambling posts...

Knickers is short for Knickerbockers.

Knickerbocker, a descendant of the Dutch settlers of New York, meant a New Yorker. knickerbockers with a small "k" came to mean--full breeches gathered and banded just below the knee, similar to golfers (After Diedrich Knickerbocker, fictitious author of "History of New York", by Washington Irving.)

Now, getting back to knickers in connection with Granny...it means long bloomers formerly worn as underwear by women and girls.

Just in case you are wondering about what "bloomers" means...Wide, loose trousers gathered at the knee and formerly worn by women and girls as an athletic costume, then later as women's underpants of similar design. (After Amelia Bloomer (1818-1894).

Finally, pure speculation on my part...Granny knickers is because the women and girls that wore such garments became grandmothers as the fashion was fading, but was never forgotten because it was passed down from family to family, and because it was well-based in people, their names, and written work.

Let me know when you need to know more. ;-))