Briefs
Encyclopedia
Briefs are a type of short, tight underwear and swimwear
Swimsuit
A swimsuit, bathing suit, or swimming costume is an item of clothing designed to be worn by men, women or children while they are engaging in a water-based activity or water sports, such as swimming, water polo, diving, surfing, water skiing, or during activities in the sun, such as sun bathing.A...

, as opposed to styles where the material extends down the legs.

In the case of men's underwear
Underpants
-Boxer shorts:Boxer shorts, or simply boxers, have an elasticated waistband that is at or near the wearer's waist, while the leg sections are fairly loose and extend to the mid-thigh. There is usually a fly, either with or without buttons...

, briefs, unlike boxer shorts
Boxer shorts
Boxer shorts are a type of undergarment worn by men. The term has been used in English since 1944 for all-around-elastic shorts, so named after the shorts worn by boxers, for whom unhindered leg movement is very important.Reasons for a preference for boxers can be attributed to their variety of...

, hold the wearer's genitals in a relatively fixed position, which make briefs a popular underwear choice for men who are participating in athletic activities or who feel they need more support than loose-fitting underwear can provide. In addition, boxers often ride up the body when the wearer is running.

Briefs often feature a fly
Fly (clothing)
A fly on clothing is a covering over an opening join concealing the mechanism, such as a zip, velcro or buttons, used to join the opening. The term is most frequently applied to a short opening over the groin in trousers, shorts and other garments, which makes them easier to put on or take off and...

 - a covered opening on the front of the garment which allows for convenience at urinals. There are several different fly designs in common use, including but not limited to the standard vertical fly, the horizontal fly, and the y-front fly. The use of a fly is optional, and many styles do not utilize a fly at all.

Traditional size briefs for both sexes cover the upper part of the thigh and extend upward up to (or cover, depending on the design) the navel. This style is often referred to as "full rise" or "full cut". There are also "low rise" and "mid rise" styles whose measurements vary between manufacturers.

See swim briefs
Swim briefs
A swim brief, or racing brief, refers to any briefs style male swimsuit such as those worn in competitive swimming and diving. The popularity of the Australian Speedo brand racing brief has led to the use of its name to refer to any racing brief, regardless of the maker...

 for the case of briefs as swimwear.

History

Briefs were first sold on January 19, 1935 by Coopers, Inc.
Jockey International
Jockey International, Inc. is a manufacturer, distributor and retailer of underwear, sleepwear for men, women, and children. The company is based in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Jockey is known for having invented the first men's Y-Front brief in 1934. Jockey is a recognized trademark in 120...

, in Chicago, Illinois. They dubbed the new undergarment the "Jockey" because it offered a similar degree of support as the jockstrap
Jockstrap
A jockstrap is an undergarment designed for supporting the male genitalia during sports or other vigorous physical activity...

 (one style of which is also called Jock brief or Support briefs). Thirty-thousand pairs were sold within three months of their introduction. In North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, "Jockey shorts" or "Jockeys" is often used as a generic term
Genericized trademark
A genericized trademark is a trademark or brand name that has become the colloquial or generic description for, or synonymous with, a general class of product or service, rather than as an indicator of source or affiliation as intended by the trademark's holder...

 for men's briefs.

In the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, briefs were first sold in 1938. Soon, shops were selling 3,000 briefs per week. They were so popular that in 1948, every member of the British Olympic team was given a free pair of briefs.

In Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, the term "jockeys" has not caught on and briefs are often referred to as "Y-fronts". The term derives from the inverted Y-shape formed by the seams at the front of the underpants
Underpants
-Boxer shorts:Boxer shorts, or simply boxers, have an elasticated waistband that is at or near the wearer's waist, while the leg sections are fairly loose and extend to the mid-thigh. There is usually a fly, either with or without buttons...

 which purports to allow easy access to the penis for urination. The colloquialism
Colloquialism
A colloquialism is a word or phrase that is common in everyday, unconstrained conversation rather than in formal speech, academic writing, or paralinguistics. Dictionaries often display colloquial words and phrases with the abbreviation colloq. as an identifier...

 is used even when the fly opening may differ in style, and not actually form the shape of the inverted letter "Y" fly on Cooper Jockey brand briefs.

In Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, briefs are referred to as "jocks", but should not be confused with jockstrap
Jockstrap
A jockstrap is an undergarment designed for supporting the male genitalia during sports or other vigorous physical activity...

s (more specifically used by athletes) which expose the buttocks. Australians generally use the word briefs to refer to the bikini-style underwear for men, which do not have the Y-front opening.

In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, a slang term for briefs is "tighty-whiteys" (with various spellings and inversions: "tidy-whities", "whitie-tighties", etc.). The exact origin of the term is unknown, but it has often been used as an epithet.

In recent years, a hybrid called boxer briefs
Boxer briefs
Boxer briefs are a type of men's undergarment which are long in the leg, like boxer shorts but tighter-fitting, like briefs; a hybrid between the two main types of male underwear in Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, and the United States. Depending on the manufacturer, boxer briefs may also be...

 has become popular. Like boxers, they have short legs, but like briefs, they are made of elastic, snug-fitting material. A shorter version of boxer briefs are called trunks
Trunks (clothing)
Trunks, when worn as swimwear, are often referred to as swim trunks, and are normally shorter than boardshorts, which extend to the knees. Trunks are the most popular type of male swimsuit in North America...

.

Other languages

In various continental European languages, such as Spanish, Italian, Bulgarian, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek and Polish, briefs are not called by a word indicating shortness, but rather by the English word slip, which in American English is rather used for a type of lingerie
Slip (clothing)
Slip is a woman's undergarment worn beneath a dress or skirt to help it hang smoothly and to prevent chafing of the skin from coarse fabrics such as wool...

. However, in Canadian French
Canadian French
Canadian French is an umbrella term referring to the varieties of French spoken in Canada. French is the mother tongue of nearly seven million Canadians, a figure constituting roughly 22% of the national population. At the federal level it has co-official status alongside English...

, the word bobettes is used instead of the International French.

Women's briefs

Briefs also refers to a style of women's and girls' panties
Panties
Panties are a form of underwear, usually light and snug-fitting, designed to be worn by women or girls in the area directly below the waist. Typical components include an elastic waistband, a crotch panel to cover the genital area , and a pair of leg openings which, like the waistband, are often...

 that is typically cut with a high waist to provide full coverage of the hips and buttocks. A control brief is a kind of high-waisted panty girdle
Girdle
A girdle is a garment that encircles the lower torso, perhaps extending below the hips, and worn often for support. The word girdle originally meant a belt. In modern English, the term girdle is most commonly used for a form of women's foundation wear that replaced the corset in popularity...

. French-cut or high-cut briefs expose more of the front part of the thigh, while boy briefs
Boyshorts
Boy shorts, also known as boy short panties, boys' cut, booty shorts, shorties, tap panties or boyleg briefs are a kind of women's underwear that goes all the way down the hips, named for their similarity in looks to men's knit boxer shorts, which themselves are a variation on traditional boxer...

 have short legs, similar to men's boxer briefs
Boxer briefs
Boxer briefs are a type of men's undergarment which are long in the leg, like boxer shorts but tighter-fitting, like briefs; a hybrid between the two main types of male underwear in Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, and the United States. Depending on the manufacturer, boxer briefs may also be...

, often combined with a lower waist.

Briefs is also the name given to costumed outerwear worn by female dancers and athletes in sports such as cheerleading
Cheerleading
Cheerleading is a physical activity, sometimes a competitive sport, based on organized routines, usually ranging from one to three minutes, which contain the components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting to direct spectators of events to cheer on sports teams at games or to participate...

, figure skating
Figure skating
Figure skating is an Olympic sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform spins, jumps, footwork and other intricate and challenging moves on ice skates. Figure skaters compete at various levels from beginner up to the Olympic level , and at local, national, and international competitions...

, and tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

. These briefs are typically worn under a short skirt
Skirt
A skirt is a tube- or cone-shaped garment that hangs from the waist and covers all or part of the legs.In the western world, skirts are usually considered women's clothing. However, there are exceptions...

; they may be attached to the skirt or dress body, or a separate garment ("cheer briefs").

Briefs and fertility

Tight briefs have been blamed for negatively affecting the sperm count, since they may interfere with the cooling of the testes
Testicle
The testicle is the male gonad in animals. Like the ovaries to which they are homologous, testes are components of both the reproductive system and the endocrine system...

. However, not all research has come to the same conclusion. A study in the October 1998 Journal of Urology, for example, concluded that underwear type is unlikely to have a significant effect on male fertility.
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