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Wife-beater

Posted by Masakim on December 31, 2002

In Reply to: Wife-beater posted by R. Berg on December 31, 2002

: : : Do people from the UK use the word "singlet" when refering to the tank top style men's undershirt? Or is that too archaic?

: : : My Japanese girlfriend throws all these ancient english words at me. I didn't know what she was talking about. Singlet? I looked it up on the internet. Oh...a "wife-beater"? Wakarim a****a.

: : : My question is, how long has the slang word for a men's undershirt "wife-beater" been around? I'm guessing it's definitely a "post-modern" thing, whatever that means.

: : 'Singlet' is a standard UK term for the sort of 'vest' you describe - that's another UK speciality, and we don't use the term 'undershirt'. As far as 'wife beater' is concerned, I've never heard of it.

: In the U.S., "singlet" is an archaic (Shakespearean) word. "Wife-beater" meaning a sleeveless undershirt is apparently slang in some part of the U.S., but I hadn't heard it either until I found it on the Oxford English Dictionary's Appeals List. The OED editors are looking for examples in print before 1997.

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