A couple of weeks back, I was standing in a friend’s
kitchen watching her cook chicken when the subject of strange words came up. I
commented that I had recently used the word ‘skivvies’ with a thirty-something
friend and that friend had no idea what I was talking about. My chicken-cooking
friend then commented that a word with double v’s was interesting and wondered
what the origin was. Well, that sounded like a challenge for the Toad so I have
launched into the fray to see what I could find out.
skivvies, noun
Pronounced - skiv
(as in give ) vees (as in bees)
Skivvies (at least
the ones we are talking about here) are men’s underwear. I generally think of
them as just the undershorts but the unabridged Oxford English Dictionary (OED)
seems to define skivvy as an undershirt. I always thought it to be a Navy term
but I cannot prove that via any of my books or the all-knowing internet. My
Thorndike Barnhart World Book Dictionary
says that it is U.S. nautical slang and the OED says it is North American slang
of nautical origin but neither give references or examples so there is no
Q.E.D. via the OED.
Now the question is whether it is plural or not; at least one
dictionary says it is. I sometimes run out to the kitchen in my skivvies and I
can tell you that I only have one pair of underwear on. However, I can
understand the confusion because sometimes, when I am less vernacular, I run
out to the kitchen in my undershorts. And I only have one pair of those on also.
So, at some future time, maybe the Toad will take a moment and tell us why men’s
underwear sounds plural but is singular. But I digress.
If the OED is right, then a ‘skivvy’ (or ‘skivvie’ as my Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang says
is an alternate spelling) is an undershirt and ‘skivvies’ are underwear, which
I assume consist of underpants and undershirt. So what then, are the lower half of skivvies or
underpants called according to Oxford? I looked it up – short knickers. Well,
since this is American slang, and I don’t know any men who wear knickers, I am
going out on a limb and officially also define ‘skivvies’ as underpants.
Note, also, that I am carefully spelling skivvies with a lower case ‘s.’ That is
because some dictionaries, such as The Third Edition American Heritage Dictionary, says Skivvies is a trademark used for
underwear. Certainly there is a Skivvies site which sells men’s underwear but
the first U.S. trademark for Skivvies was in 1954 which is decades after the
term was commonly used.
If you Google search ‘skivvies’ you immediately get a response that
reads:
“Skivvies, 3rd person, singular present, plural of skiv·vy
(Noun)”
While this is true, I believe that it is referring to a different
slang term altogether (confused yet?). It turns out that in British colloquial
slang ‘skivvy’ is a derogatory term for a female domestic servant such as a
scullery maid. Hence, if you have more than one skivvy in your kitchen then you
have skivvies.
I think all of this needs a summary. When men are in their
undershorts they are in their skivvies. Also, when men are in their undershorts
and undershirts (not sure if wife beaters qualify) and they have a nautical
background they, too, are in their skivvies. If one wants to be proper, then
when in just an undershirt, one is in his skivvy. I suppose that means that if
there are two men, each in a skivvy, then the two are in their skivvies. If the
man is in England and is in his skivvy, well, that is a different story.
I guess, in classic Toad tradition, we now need to show
usage via a sentence:
“Sylvester slipped down to the scullery in his skivvies late
at night to skive some ham for a snack when, to his surprise, the skivvy was
there scrubbing the floor.”
