Davy Crockett's Britches

From The 'Bet You Didn't Know This' Category

From left, Davy Crockett, Breeches, Britches

This morning, in the parking lot of the local grocery store, as I got out of my car, I realized my pants were sagging. It was one of those mornings! I need another notch on my belt. So, without thinking about it, I tightened up my belt an extra hole.

When I looked up, there was a couple walking by just staring at me.

“Sorry,” I said, “just cinching up my britches.”

This didn’t seem to impress them, and I realized that at that moment, I had fully become my father. In fact, it’s possible that I unknowingly became my grandfather.

Britches? I said that out loud.

Anyway, obviously my usage was just to describe my pants, but I googled around a bit to discover that the original use of the word described something quite different.

To wit: Britches are generally tighter pants, sometimes similar to modern capri leggings, that end a bit below the knee. They should be worn with boots or, depending on the era, stockings and shoes or no stockings if it’s supposed to be more pirate-esque. Breeches would be the older, 18th Century variant.

I’m 99% certain that there are cosplayers and historians among our subscribers that will inform me about how incorrect that is. To them I would also point out that there’s a honky-tonk band out of Colorado called The Sugar Britches.

And no exploration of one’s britches would be complete without understanding the context of the idiom, “Getting too big for his britches.” You’ll be delighted to know that that’s totally a Davy Crockett insult aimed squarely at none other than Andrew Jackson.

In 1835, Crockett wrote An Account of Col. Crockett's Tour to the North and Down East. In it, he writes of Jackson, “I myself was one of the first to fire a gun under Andrew Jackson. I helped to give him all his glory. But I liked him well once: but when a man gets too big for his breeches, I say good bye."

See, breeches. Which turned into britches. And now is pants.

Which doesn’t actually explain why I just automatically used the word britches instead of pants. I suspect it has something to do with the fact that getting caught in a parking lot pulling up your pants sounds infinitely worse than cinching up your britches.

Come to think of it, I can’t be certain my father ever used the word britches. Though I am sure he wouldn’t actually care if somebody caught him hitching them up. So, I suppose I haven’t reached ‘just like my dad’ phase quite yet.

Getting close though…