pantyhose
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of pantyhose
First recorded in 1960–65
Explanation
Pantyhose are sheer tights, a garment that snugly covers your legs. It was once very common for certain jobs to require women to wear pantyhose. You might call pantyhose tights or stockings — this word is uncommon outside of the US, and it's typically used for a particularly thin, sheer hosiery with built-in underwear. Pantyhose were invented in the 1960s, replacing old fashioned knee-high stockings that were held in place with garters. The name pantyhose is a combination of panty, undergarment or underwear, and hose, which is short for hosiery.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Pantyhose colors and cathedrals were the two things that stood out in Vera Wang’s collection this morning, those and Viola Davis sitting across the runway.
From New York Times • Feb. 14, 2012
It was here that I first came upon the translated works of the acidulous satirist Aldo Busi, whose “Standard Life of a Temporary Pantyhose Salesman” seems lamentably little known in the English-speaking world.
From New York Times • Apr. 15, 2011
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
