Why can’t I find the defination of henley? When I look it up, I find a poet, a writer, a town in Missouri, a healthcare company, a borough in London, and a ball player. But when I look in any clothing catalog, a t-shirt with a few buttons at the top is called a henley.
Is this a new word for that particular garment that Websters hasn’t recognized as a word yet? What’s the deal?
"Henley or Wallace Beery has a collarless ring neck that is split in front to allow two or more vertical buttons. Derived from crew racing shirts worn for the famous rowing regatta established in 1839 at Henley, England (south west of London). "
This is an excellent question. The only place I saw it defined was here. It’s nothing you don’t already know.
Here’s what this site has to say about Henley shirts:
I’m not sure what that means. It can be parsed to have more than one meaning.
Not that you can trust catalogs, but most of them suggest that the Henley was named for the Royal Henley Regatta, the world championship for university-level crew. It makes sense, as a Henley is a long-sleeved shirt with a “crew neck” – a style which is definitely named for the sport.
I Googled “Henley shirt named”, but I also rowed in high school, so I basically played my hunch.
There’s a lot of specialized fashion terms which aren’t in general dictionaries. The henley shirt is generally a round collared shirt with a short placket. It’s modeled off the traditional rowing shirt (these aren’t worn in competition much anymore, everyone’s switched to Lycra) and named after the famous Henley Royal Regatta. (BTW, rowing is also where the terms “crew neck” and “crew socks” come from.)
ARGH, too slow on the draw again. Man, too many people here have the same bits of arcane knowledge I do… 