Knicker
/ˈnɪk.ər/noun
A short, loose-fitting trouser or undergarment, especially in British English.
Did you know?‘Knicker’ is a clipped form of *knickerbockers*, a term popularized in America by Washington Irving’s fictional Dutch author Diedrich Knickerbocker, whose surname was meant to sound old Dutch and comic.
Etymological Timeline
19th Century
English
knicker
“A shortened form of knickerbockers, meaning loose knee-length trousers.”
1809
English
Knickerbocker
“A comic surname used by Washington Irving in *A History of New York*; later a nickname for Dutch-descended New Yorkers.”
17th Century
Dutch
Knickerbocker
“A fabricated Dutch-sounding surname built to evoke old Dutch settlers, not a native Dutch word.”
17th Century
Dutch
knikker
“A marble; literally a small hard object used in children’s play.”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*knik-
“An imitative or sound-symbolic base associated with a crack, snap, or sharp movement.”
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