Camiknickers

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈkæm.əˌnɪk.əz/

Definitions

1. A single garment combining a sleeveless upper section with attached lower leg coverings, worn as an undergarment or casual clothing
2. A type of clothing that merges a tank top style with shorts or capri lengths, designed for comfort and often worn underneath outer garments or as sleepwear
3. This garment blends a sleeveless top with short-like bottoms, typically intended as loungewear or lingerie

Etymology: Camiknickers is a blend of "camisole" and "knickers," two garments that were already familiar when the portmanteau appeared in the 1920s. The earlier options were heavier. Combinations, the one-piece undergarments of the period, covered the body from shoulders to knees, so the new garment was a shorter and lighter alternative that kept the top half of the camisole and the bottom half of the knickers in one piece. The word is a clean example of how English fused two clothing names into a single term to describe a new item rather than an old one. The "camisole" half comes from French, and "knickers" is a shortened form of "knickerbockers," the loose breeches named after the fictional Dutch settlers in Washington Irving's writings. Both halves therefore carry a foreign and literary past into a very ordinary drawer. The garment itself went out of fashion, and its design returned decades later under other names. In the 1990s lingerie makers sold a near-identical piece as a "teddy" or a "body," which suggests the shape outlasted the word.