Pantsuit Mystery

Why is it called a “pantsuit”?

Here’s a topical idea that will stir up some buzz. Why do they call it a pantsuit when all pants have suits? I mean, when all suits have pants? For the purpose of full disclosure I have to admit this is not my question originally, it is a question a friend asked me, and it is a question whose answer seems obvious: because there are also skirt suits, for women. Also, again, for the purpose of full disclosure, Quartz already did a blog post on this topic fairly recently and it comes up second when you Google “Why do they call it a pantsuit.” However, here we are.

Quartz talked to Peter Sokolowski, a lexicographer at Merriam-Webster, who said this:

The first reference to pantsuit specifically for women dates to 1959 in an advertisement,” he says, and the term apparently maintained its function. It differentiated between a suit worn with pants, versus a skirt.

Interesting.

Pantsuit, pantsuit. P-A-N-T-S-U-I-T. Get a load of this. Wikipedia says the pantsuit was introduced in the 1920s “when a small number of women adopted a masculine style, including pantsuits, hats, and even canes and monocles.” Canes and monocles — now that is a very stylish look. And did you know women were not allowed to wear pants on the United States Senate floor until 1993?????? Damn. We were alive then. And Kurt Cobain was almost dead! Here’s part of a Slate post about it that was published on my birthday this year:

Until 1993, a rule in the upper chamber barred women from wearing pants on the floor, but when a small cadre of Democrats, including Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, started wearing trousers in protest, female Senate staff joined them, and the prohibition was abolished.

Seems like something I knew at one point and mostly forgot, but now we both know it again. 🙂

And here’s an acrostic poem I wrote about pantsuit:

Partly cloudy sunny skies
Arouse within us something wise
Not just what the name implies
Though surely what you will surmise
Suits with pants, surprise, surprise
Unbearable to frail men’s eyes
I hate the way men are
(T)Fuck them

It got rough at the end and that is something for which I do not apologize.

So, that’s the pantsuit post.