knickerbockers

See also: knickerbocker, Knickerbockers, and Knickerbocker

English

a boy in knickerbockers at work in a cotton mill

Etymology

From 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)

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 (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 m, bombachos (es) m pl
• Swedish: golfbyxor c pl, knäbyxor c pl, (slang) äppelknyckarbyxor (sv) c pl

French

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.