I haven’t taken a survey, but adult women I have known universally call them underwear. Men may call them panties, but I really don’t hear women do it.
This thread is getting my already moist panties wet.
I prefer “man-barrier” for ladies’ underpants.
What about pantaloons? No love for the pantaloons?
Like most of you, I’m shocked that there is controversy, as I always thought That’s What They’re Called.
That being said, though, there is a time when I am actually offended by the word panties (but I try to curtail my rage, in defeerence of my love for the speaker), my wife sometimes slips up and uses the words “panties” to refer to the undergarments of both our kids, the girl and the boy. As in “can you get me a new pair of panties for Christopher?” I do remind her quickly ab out how boys do not wear panties! but, as I said, because of my love for her, plus the realization that that’s the word she’s more familiar with, being a woman and all, has me keep most of my white-hot rage inside. Strangely, I don’t get upset at all if she was to say “can you get me a new pair of underwear for Chantal?” Maybe it’s because “underwear” is gender-neutral, or it’s because I’m a mal chauvinist pig. 
You’re obviously British or Australian or something. As I’m sure you know, in the U.S. “pants” are trousers and “knickers” are those knee-length pants that old-fashioned newsboys used to wear.
That wouldn’t bother me at all. Just because I hate the sound of the word doesn’t mean that I don’t want people to use it.
Thanks all. As I suspected, it does not seem there is a much of a debate. My sister in law has her panties in a bunch over nothing.
How do we feel about undies? Or underoos? I think I’m more likely to use undies as a cutesy word rather than panties.
I prefer to call women’s underwear “gatekeepers”.
They’re made “smaller” or “bigger” by shortening or lenghening the leg length, obviously.
I should have made clear that I was talking about the word rather than the referent. But for that matter, yes, if you cut down pants far enough, you would end up with panties - sort of.
In the 18th and 19th c, women’s undergarments were long linen drawers - something like modern capri pants. As fashions changed and hemlines rose, these had to get smaller, at the waist and in the leg. Eventually, they become a garment that only covers the pelvic area - panties.
I’m simplifying, of course - early drawers were not sewn together at the front, crotch or back, merely tied at the waist - but you get my point that in most people’s minds, panties (and all underclothes, for that matter) are diminutive versions of outerwear.
I’m an adult woman, and I say “panties”. I actually like the word. The one that makes me uncomfortable is “underpants”. “Underwear” is O.K., but “underpants” sounds creepy to me. OTOH, “hoodie” is one of my favorite new words, although I often use it incorrectly (to mean “hood” rather than “hooded sweatshirt”).
No, I don’t accept that “most people” see “a panties and all underclothes” as diminutive versions of their outerwear?
Perhaps you can tell us how you came to such a conclusion about “most people”?
I am getting close to 30 years past the end of my teens, so I have been listening to people talk about their clothes, intimately and otherwise, a long time. I can’t recall anyone ever saying their underwear was like their outerwear, with the possible exception of the Madonna look of the 80s and similar short term, and ultimately limited in appeal fashion trends, in which the desire was to shock, not to demonstrate that “most people” see the underwear and outerwear as different sized versions of the same thing.
Further evidence would be the number of school rules, and even attempts to make civic laws regarding the showing of underwear as part of one’s dress, such as boxers or bra straps visible.
So that is my anecdotal reasoning. What do you have to persuade me otherwise?
Sooo, here’s a fun story,
a few years ago, in the ER I went to give a medication to another nurses pt. The pt was going to be admitted, and the admitting doc was at the bedside examining the pt. She was from a nursing home, 70 or so, stringy hair, sallow skin, but her eyes were bird bright, she was definitely home. the doc asked me to stay and chaperone him for a rectal exam, a common screen for GI bleeding. Being a sensitive guy I always ask if they need help with their clothes rather than just reaching, her response…
‘It’s been a long time since a man took my panties down’
Panties…panties…panties…
Sounds a bit tinny to me…
How about 'step-ins"? I like that one, but unfortunately it has gone out of style.
Regards,
Shodan
screams, runs out of thread
You mean the ones she laid out for you?
British. What’s your point? If this is a US-terminology-only discussion I’m sure the OP would have specified.
Freudian Slit, I like “undies” as a diminuitive much more than “panties”!
Sometimes I call my husband’s undershorts his man panties, just to bug him.
Nah, lingerie is a blanket term. Bras, panties, garters, nighties, etc…, every bit of cloth intended to hide what is to be shown while showing what is hidden (yes, I stole that phrase ;))