Clothing Definitions — definitions of garments and clothing terms from Apparel Search
A stocking is a close-fitting, variously elastic garment covering the foot and the lower part of the leg. Stockings were formerly made of woven cloth and are now made of knitted wool, silk, cotton or nylon; the whole family belongs to hosiery. The word stock referred to the bottom stump part of the body, and the one-piece lower-body covering of the 1400s split over time into upper-stocks, later worn separately as knee breeches, and nether-stocks, later worn separately as stockings. Half-stockings, covering the foot and part of the calf only, are commonly called socks.
Please keep in mind that the stockings discussed below are different then Christmas Stockings. Do you know if Christmas stocking size matters? By the way, when you are done reading this stockings definition, you may want to check the intimate apparel and hosiery sections we created for eBay.
A stocking is a close-fitting, variously elastic garment covering the foot and lower part of the leg, but usually not intended to conceal the leg. It was formerly made of woven cloth but now of knitted wool, silk, cotton or nylon (see Hosiery). The word stock used to refer to the bottom "stump" part of the body, and by analogy the word was used to refer to the one-piece covering of the lower trunk and limbs of the 1400s
essentially tights consisting of the upper-stocks (later to be worn separately as knee breeches) and nether-stocks (later to worn separately as stockings.
Half-stockings, covering the foot and part of the calf only, are commonly called socks. This word is an adaptation of Latin soccus, a slipper or light shoe. It was the shoe worn by the actors in Roman comedy
and so was used symbolically of comedy, as buskin, the high boot, was of tragedy. (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1911)
Stockings were originally an exclusively male piece of apparel. In the 17th century women who took up the masculine fashion of wearing stockings were associated with aspiring to learnedness and other protofeminist causes, which led to the derogatory term blue-stocking.
In modern usage, stocking generally refers to forms of women's hosiery like pantyhose (one piece) and thigh high nylon stockings (two matching pieces), and can, depending on the design, be quite sexually attractive (particularly to stocking fetishists). Modern stockings come in a huge variety of colors and styles (fishnet, back seamed, etc).
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The stocking's history is a history of knitting and then of chemistry. Hand-knitted and then frame-knitted stockings in wool and silk were valuable wardrobe items for centuries, shaped to the leg with fashioned seams. Cotton broadened the market, and nylon, introduced on the eve of the Second World War, transformed it: sheer, elastic, quick-drying stockings became a mass product, complete with the wartime scarcity that made a pair of nylons a notable gift. The back seam of early sheer stockings, a construction necessity of flat knitting, survived as a style detail in back-seamed designs long after seamless knitting made it optional.
Modern stockings come in a wide variety of colours and styles, fishnet and back-seamed among them, held up by garter belts, elastic bands or silicone grips depending on design. The neighbouring garments divide by coverage and construction: socks stop partway up the calf; tights and leggings cover the whole leg; pantyhose join both legs and a brief in one piece; a body stocking extends coverage to the torso. All of them sit inside the hosiery family, and the definitions cross-refer, sock, hosiery, girdle, corset, pantyhose, leggings, garter and leotard among them, because the differences are exactly the kind a buyer or a maker needs spelled out.
A stocking covers the foot and the lower part of the leg, rising well up the calf or thigh. A sock is a half-stocking, covering the foot and part of the calf only. The word sock adapts the Latin soccus, the light shoe or slipper worn by actors in Roman comedy.
Stockings were formerly made of woven cloth. Modern stockings are knitted, in wool, silk, cotton or, most commonly today, nylon. Modern usage covers women's hosiery forms including pantyhose, which is one piece, and thigh-high stockings, which are two matching pieces.
Stockings were originally an exclusively male garment. In the 17th century, women who took up the masculine fashion of wearing stockings were associated with aspiring to learnedness and other early feminist causes, which led to the derogatory term blue-stocking, later shortened to bluestocking for an intellectual woman.