[Artemisia] Smalls vs. ???

[Stephanae Baker]

I certainly can't help with "smalls" meaning either children or  
underwear in period. One thing, however, does seem clear: it meant  
not only "narrow," but also "small" as we use it today. Witness this  
line from Chaucer's prologue to the Canterbury Tales: "And smale  
fowles maken melodye." I don't think he meant narrow fowls.

Lady Belladonna


On Aug 8, 2007, at 10:28 PM, Elaine wrote:

> Greetings, everyone!
> Morgan, or anyone,
> Can someone please cite me a reference where "smalls" is used in  
> period to
> mean EITHER "underwear" in the sense of "clothing worn under other
> clothing," or "people under the age of majority?"
>
> The Oxford English Dictionary Online does not cite "smalls" in  
> either of
> those forms at all. "Small" was used as an adjective in period to mean
> "narrow." The earliest reference in the OED is a noun from the  
> Anglo-Saxon
> gloss in the Book of Lindisfarne and means, according to the OED,  
> "A smack
> or blow; an onset, shock."
>
> "Smalls" meaning ostensibly "underwear" may be a back-formation (in  
> the folk
> process) from "smallclothes," which means "Breeches; knee- 
> breeches," in the
> sense of _outerwear or street clothes_ with the OED's first  
> reference being
> in 1796, when breeches were fashionable.
>
> I await refutation.
> Wordily yours,
> Caryn