knickerbockers

See also: knickerbocker, Knickerbockers, and Knickerbocker

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

knickerbockers

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Knickerbocker +‎ -s, after the short breeches worn by Diedrich Knickerbocker in George Cruikshank's illustrations of Washington Irving's 1809 A History of New York.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈnɪkəbɒkəz/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈnɪkɚbɑkɚz/, enPR: nĭkʹər-bŏk-ərz

Noun

knickerbockers pl (plural only, attributive knickerbocker)

1. Men's or boys' baggy knee breeches, of a type particularly popular in the early 20th century.
   • 1890, Jacob A[ugust] Riis, “The Sweaters of Jewtown”, in How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 125:

     Five men and a woman, two young girls, […], and a boy […] are at the machines sewing knickerbockers, “knee-pants” in the Ludlow Street dialect.

   • 1907, Ronald M. Burrows, The Discoveries In Crete, page 37:

     […] and some gems that represent the tasseled garment that the leader wears show it in a distinctly religious connection. On a gem from Zakro it [the sistrum] is being being carried by a man who does not wear the loin-cloth, but a baggy kind of knickerbockers like the Moslem trousers of to-day.

   • a. 1954 (date written), Dylan Thomas, “The Holy Six”, in Adventures in the Skin Trade (A New Directions Paperbook; no. 183), New York, N.Y.: New Directions Publishing Corporation, published 1969, →ISBN, page 129:

     And it was early morning, and the world was moist, when the crystal-gazer's husband, a freak in knickerbockers with an open coppish and a sabbath gamp, came over the stones outside his house to meet the holy travellers.

Derived terms

• knickerbocker
• knickers (UK, New Zealand)

Translations

knickerbockers

Bulgarian: брич m (brič) Chinese: Hokkien: 吊燈褲 / 吊灯裤 (tiàu-teng-khò͘) Mandarin: 燈籠褲 / 灯笼裤 (zh) (dēnglongkù) Danish: knæbukser (da) c pl Dutch: knickerbocker (nl) m, zoeavenbroek f Finnish: polvihousut pl French: knickerbockers (fr) m pl, knickers (fr) m pl Georgian: ბრიჯი (ka) (briǯi) German: Knickerbocker (de) m pl Hindi: निकर (hi) m (nikar), जाँघिया (hi) m (jāṅghiyā), जांघिया m (jāṅghiyā) Italian: pantaloni alla zuava m pl, calzoni alla zuava m pl Japanese: ニッカーボッカー (ja) (nikkābokkā), ニッカボッカ (nikkabokka), ニッカーズボン (nikkā-zubon), ニッカズボン (nikka-zubon) Polish: spodenki (pl) m pl, pumpy (pl) m pl or f pl Punjabi: ਨਿੱਕਰ f (nikkar) Russian: бри́джи (ru) m pl (brídži) Spanish: bombacho (es) m, bombachos (es) m pl Swedish: golfbyxor c pl, knäbyxor c pl, (slang) äppelknyckarbyxor (sv) c pl

French

French Wikipedia has an article on:

knickerbockers

Wikipedia ^fr

Alternative forms

• knickerbocker m sg

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English knickerbockers.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /(k)ni.kœʁ.bɔ.kœʁ/
• Rhymes: -œʁ

Noun

knickerbockers m pl (plural only)

1. knickerbockers

   Synonym: (clipping) knickers

   Il est venu en knickerbockers.

   He came in knickerbockers.

Usage notes

• The singular form knickerbocker, unlike the plural form, may only refer to one pair of trousers.

Further reading

• “knickerbockers”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.