Pants

Recently, we’ve had weekly discussions about the word ‘pants’. When my two older children were little, they thought of pants as trousers. Now, they think I’m weird for calling trousers pants and they cringe when I say underpants. They also misunderstand me sometimes when I use the word pants and I sometimes misunderstand them, albeit very briefly, before I get that they are referring to their trousers instead of their underpants. We never call my or my daughter’s underpants knickers. That’s just too weird! We have a Polish friend who calls mens pants (meaning underpants) knickers which my children find hilarious. I can see how this can easily happen though. I wonder if my 11 year old son wears his underpants high because I am constantly telling him ‘pull your pants up’ meaning pull your trousers up. His pants (meaning trousers) are sometimes so low and his pants (meaning underpants) are so high I think maybe I am confusing him. Or maybe he just ignores me completely. My 4 year old has somehow managed to understand everyone very clearly and accepts both ways of referring to pants. I wonder how long this will last?

Then I discovered there is another meaning for the word ‘pants’ which I really cannot understand and will never use. Pants in British English can mean ‘bad’, as in ‘that’s pants’. This doesn’t come naturally to me. How about we say ‘That’s underpants’ instead? No, that doesn’t really work.

Here is an illustration that fascinated my daughter. Not knowing some of the British terms as well made it a language lesson for her. She had no idea what garter belts were (thank goodness) and I forgot that they are called suspenders in British English. Now that really could cause some confusion because typically only men wear suspenders! And typically only women in Britain wear suspenders. I think Anna Grace is still confused by them no matter what language is used.

Vest is another one that will always confuse me for the first second in conversation. I never visualize a vest as being something you wear UNDER your shirt, but always something I to be worn over top of your shirt. I am certain I have caused confusion and embarrassment many times over.