thumb|right| Women's undergarments In the United Kingdom, Ireland and some Commonwealth nations, knickers is a word for women's undergarments.

In older usage knickers referred to men's garments such as knickerbockers, also known as plus two's or plus fours in British English . The term knickerbockers has become historic in British English but is used in North American , . The term "knickers" is still used to refer to nickerbockers in American English. However, the adoption of the term "knickers" to denote a women's undergarment in British English has caused the expression, along with "knickerbockers" to become historic.

George Cruikshank, whose illustrations are classic icons for Charles Dickens's works, also did the illustrations for Washington Irving's droll History of New York (published in 1809) when it was published in London. He showed the old-time Knickerbockers, Irving's fictitious Dutch colonial family, in their loose knee-length Dutch breeches. By 1859 relatively short loose ladies' undergarments, a kind of abbreviated version of pantalettes or pantaloons, were known as "knickers" in England, but this is often used as a general term for all women's underwear. There are now many names for women's undergarments that are sometimes called knickers, such as panties, thongs, g-strings, briefs, shorts, tangas, etc.

In Australian and British usage the term is often used in the expressions "Don't get your knickers in a twist" and "Don't get your knickers in a knot". In U.S. usage, its equivalent is "don't get your panties in a bunch" and "Don't get your panties in a twist".

Bibliography

Shorter Oxford English Dictionary 6th Ed., Oxford University Press, 2007

• Roetzel, Bernhard: Gentleman: A Timeless Fashion. Könemann; Königswinter, 2004. ISBN 3-8331-1061-9

See also

• Camiknickers
• Panties