I was throwing away a couple of old books that had been in our basement for I don’t know how long, and as I flipped through one of them — it contained article from, I think, an old Readers Digest, but I’m not sure. Anyhow, it was a quiz about articles of clothing and where they came from or how they got their name. I thought it might be interesting to list a few of the item here — and I’ve even included the answer…..
SOCK
a. The first were woven from fine Egyptian linen called “sax.”
b. The Latin Word “socks,” a shoe made of thin leather.
c. Named for Sir Williams Roxbury, who first wore them in public.
The ancient Greeks wore them first; they were made of a light leather and called “sykhos.” Roman soldiers used them as boot liners and wore them to Britain, where the name “socks” was clipped to “socks.”
SHOE
a. From the practice of hurling footwear at undesirable critters while “shoo!”
b. The Anglo-Saxon “sceo,” pluralized to “schwas,” meaning “to cover.”
c. It was popularized by Japanese leather merchant Shu’ Ze.
Egyptian sandals of woven papyrus were the first footwear, worn as early as 2000 B.C. Greeks fashioned fitted footwear from leather by 600 B.C., followed by the Romans who added rights and lefts around 200 B.C. But out word for shoe comes from the Anglo-Saxons.
GLOVE
a. From the Anglo- Saxon “folm,” meaning the palm of the hand.
b. The oldest pair came from King Tut’s Gluvril Chamber.
c. Named after Sir Galveston, a knight of the Round Table.
Men have been wearing gloves for 10,000 years. Women didn’t get in on the fun until 1550, when France’s Catherine de Medici stunned the fashion world with her hers — lavishly embroidered and richly jeweled.
TUXEDO
a. It made its debut at a country club in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.
b. Its resemblance to Aptenodytes tuxidos, the tuxedo penguin.
c. Mark Twain, who ridiculed formalwear as “tailored & tucksied.”
Heir to the tobacco fortune, Pierre Lorillard IV, a blue blood New Yorker set the fashion world on its ear in 1886. His family commissioned and wore the first of the future prom rentals to the Autumn Ball at his exclusive country club in the village of Tuxedo Park.
STETSON
a. In prairie pidgin, to “stet” means to “stay,” and this hat “stay’s on.”
b. Alteration of “State Son,” honoring Texams who died at the Alamo.
c. Named for its creator, Philadelphia haberdasher John Stetson.
John Stetson worked in his family’s Philadelphia hat business as a boy. He traveled out west in the 1860s to improve his health. When he returned to Philly, he started making hats that were suited to the needs of the Western cowboys. The hats soon became the most popular cowboy headgear in the west. Buffalo Bill, General George Custer, Annie Oakley, and Calamity Jane all wore them.
TROUSERS
a. Leather garments first seen on Nordic fishermen, on River Trow.
b. After French Prelate Henri Trouseut, who wore them under his robe.
c. The Gaelic “trews” for “leg covers.”
I guess anyone can wear the pants in your family, but only men can wear trousers — when women wear them, they’re “slacks (from Latin, “maxus,” for “loose.”) Answer is “c”
UMBRELLA
a. It was patterned after the Alaskan “umbriak,” a round canoe.
b. From the Latin “umbra,” which means “shade.”
c. For Londoner Ed Umber’s, its inventor.
In London in the 1750s, a British merchant named John Hanway, popularized th umbrella. Before that, anything more than a casual attempt to avoid the rain was considered unmanly — the umbrella was for women to escape the sun.
PAJAMAS
a. Their Central American town of origin, Pajama (near Panama.)
b. The Farsi “pau” for “leg,” and “jam” meaning “garment” because they started out as pants.
c. It was developed and marketed by flannel baron Sanjib Pajima.
From late in the 16th century, both men and women wore nightgowns (really.) Two hundred years later, as women’s nightgowns got flimsier , men’s got shorter, and turned into nightshirts. The loose pants called “pajamas” were worn on the bottom. The two didn’t match, of course. But eventually they did, and — they became the pajamas that we know today.
So the next time you’re going through your closet, you’ll know where some of this stuff came from — historically, at least.
— 30 —