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Pajamas

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"Pyjama" redirects here. Pajamas are not a piece of clothing. For other meanings of "pyjama" or "pajama" or similar see Pajamas (disambiguation).
Muslim girl, India, in paijama and kurti, 1844.

Pajamas in US English, spelled pyjamas in British English (see also spelling differences), often shortened to PJs or jammies, can refer to several related types of clothing. The original pāijāmas are loose, lightweight trousers fitted with drawstring waistbands and worn in South and West Asia by both sexes.[1] In many English-speaking nations (not in India), pajamas are loose-fitting, two-piece garments derived from the original garment and worn chiefly for sleeping,[2] but sometimes also for lounging,[3] also by both sexes.[4] More generally, pajamas may refer to several garments, for both daywear and nightwear, derived from traditional pajamas and involving variations of style and material.

The word pyjama or pajama, which originally derives from the Persian word پايجامه (pāyjāmeh, from pāy 'leg' and jāmeh 'garment'), was incorporated into the English language during the British Raj through the Hindustani language (the progenitor language of modern-day Urdu and Hindi).[5]

Types of pajamas

Traditional

File:Chaplin Limelight promo crop.jpg
Charles Chaplin in pajamas

Traditional pajamas consist of a jacket-and-trousers combination made of soft fabric, such as flannel;[6] The jacket element usually has a placket front and its sleeves have no cuffs.[7] For a number of reasons (increased freedom of movement, aesthetic appeal, etc.) many men opt to sleep or lounge barechested in just the pajama trousers.

In colloquial speech, these traditional pajamas are often called PJs, jim jams, or jammies;[8] while in South Asia and South Africa, they are sometimes referred to as night suits.

Some pajamas feature a drop seat (also known as a trap door or butt flap): a buttoned opening in the seat, designed to allow the wearer to conveniently use a toilet. Drop seats were very common on pajamas made before the 1950s, but today they are rather rare.

Contemporary

Contemporary pajamas are derived from traditional pajamas. There are many variations in style such as short sleeve pajamas,[9] pajama bottoms of varying length,[10] or, on occasion, one-piece pajamas,[11] and pajamas incorporating various materials.

Chiefly in the US, stretch-knit sleep apparel with rib-knit trimmings are common. Usually worn by children, these garments often have pullover tops (if two-piece) or have zippers down the fronts (if one-piece), and may also be footed.

Although pajamas are usually distinguished from non-bifurcated sleeping garments such as nightgowns, in the US, they can sometimes include the latter, as in babydoll pajamas.[12]

Daywear

Pajamas may today refer to women's combination daywear, consisting of short-sleeved or sleeveless blouses and lightweight trousers. Examples of these include capri pajamas, beach pajamas, and hostess pajamas.[13]

Material

Pajamas are usually loose fitting and designed for comfort, using softer materials such as cotton or the more luxurious silk or satin. Synthetic materials such as polyester and Lycra are also available.

Designs and patterns

Pajamas often contain visual references to a thing that may hold some special appeal to the wearer. Images of sports, animals, balloons, polka dots, flowers, stripes, plaids, foulards, paisleys and other motifs may all be used to decorate them. Pajamas may also be found in plainer designs, such as plaid or plain gray, but when worn in public, they are usually designed in such a way that makes their identity unambiguous. Older styles of children's pajamas have been depicted as having a square button-up flap covering the buttocks.

Custom

Pajamas are often worn with bare feet and sometimes without underwear. They are often worn as comfort wear even when not in bed, and are also sometimes worn as a fashion statement. Some people have started to wear pajama pants in public as fashion.[14] In eastern China, it is not unusual in the late afternoon or evening, for adults to wear their pajamas in public around their local neighborhood.[15] The supermarket Tesco in St Mellons, Cardiff, United Kingdom started a ban on customers wearing pajamas in January 2010.[16] In January 2012, a local Dublin branch of the Government's Department of Social Protection advised that pajamas were not regarded as appropriate attire when attending the office for welfare services.[17]

History

The word pajama was incorporated into the English language from Persian via Urdu. The word originally derives from Persian پايجامه pāyjāmeh meaning 'leg garment'.

The worldwide use of pajamas (the word and the garment) is the result of British presence in South Asia in the 18th and 19th centuries.[18] According to Yule and Burnell's Hobson-Jobson (1903)[19] the word originally referred to loose trousers tied around the waist.

Such a garment is used by various persons in India e.g. by women of various classes, by Sikh men, and most by Muslim of both sexes. It was adopted from the Muslim by Europeans as an article of dishabille and of night attire ... It is probable that we English took the habit like a good many others from the Portuguese. Thus Pyrard (c. 1610) says, in speaking of Goa Hospital: "Ils ont force calsons sans quoy ne couchent iamais les Portugais des Indes" ... The word is now used in London shops. A friend furnishes the following reminiscence: "The late Mr. B—, tailor in Jermyn Street, some on 40 years ago, in reply to a question why pyjammas had feet sewn on to them (as was sometimes the case with those furnished by London outfitters) answered: 'I believe, Sir, it is because of the White Ants."[20] Examples. 1828: "His chief joy smoking a cigar in loose Paee-jams and native slippers." Orient. Sport. Mag. reprint 1873, i. 64. 1881: "The rest of our attire consisted of that particularly light and airy white flannel garment, known throughout India as a pyjama suit." Haekel, Ceylon, p. 329.[21]

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, "They were introduced in England as lounging attire in the 17th century but soon went out of fashion. About 1870 they reappeared in the Western world as sleeping attire for men, after returning British colonials brought (them) back ...."[22] As sleeping attire, they adapted the pajama pant to come without pockets, since pockets are only necessary for daywear. However, pajama pockets came back into fashion in the 2000s, due to their usefulness in carrying personal items such as tissues or mobile telephones.

Wearing pajamas in public

In January 2012, Michael Williams, a commissioner in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, proposed an ordinance prohibiting people from wearing pajamas in public. Caddo Parish already has a law against wearing sagging pants below the waist, but Williams is pushing for a law against pajama pants after seeing a group of young men wearing loose fitting pajama pants that were about to show their private parts. According to Williams, "The moral fiber in our community is dwindling. If not now, when? Because it's pajama pants today, next it will be underwear tomorrow.” [23][24]

Williams’ concerns are reflected in many school and work dress codes. A Vermont high school banned pajamas in 2011, concerned that they could be a safety hazard.[25]

  • Author Lucy Maud Montgomery, touches upon how pajamas were viewed by the Canadian provincial culture in her 1931 novel, A Tangled Web: "The night before, as he was sitting on his bed, studying if there were any way to wheedle the secret out of Dandy Dark, he had absently put both feet into one pyjama leg. Then when he stood up he fell on the floor in what his terrified wife at first thought was a fit. Very few of the clan sympathized with him as to his resulting shoulder. They thought it served him right for wearing new-fangled duds. If he had had a proper nightshirt on it couldn't have happened."[26]
  • The Pajama Game was a Broadway musical and film highlighting workers at a pajama factory.
  • Pajamas played a prominent role on a popular kids television show known as Bananas in Pyjamas. The show detailed the adventures of two bananas while wearing their pajamas.
  • Pajamas Media is an online advertising and publishing company created by bloggers Roger L. Simon and Charles Johnson. The term derives from CNN president Jonathan Klein's 2004 dismissal of bloggers as "a guy sitting in his living room in his pyjamas.".[27]
  • The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a 2006 novel about a Jewish boy in a concentration camp, written from the perspective of an innocent son of the camp's commander who befriends him. The commander's son at first believes that the Jew's striped clothes are pajamas, hence the name of the book.
  • Girl in short sleeve PJs; doll in traditional.
    Girl in short sleeve PJs; doll in traditional.
  • Boys in stretch-knit pajamas.
    Boys in stretch-knit pajamas.
  • Toddler in footed pajamas.
    Toddler in footed pajamas.
  • Courier in white paijama, India, 1844.
    Courier in white paijama, India, 1844.
  • Men in white paijama with hunting cheetahs, India 1844.
    Men in white paijama with hunting cheetahs, India 1844.
  • Muslim men in paijamas (various styles), Bombay, 1867
    Muslim men in paijamas (various styles), Bombay, 1867
  • Muslim woman, in Sind, British India, in salwar style pajamas, 1870.
    Muslim woman, in Sind, British India, in salwar style pajamas, 1870.

See also

References

  1. ^ cf. The Oxford English Dictionary. 1989 edition. Oxford University Press. Oxford and London.
  2. ^ "'Moe' with owners James Davis & wife, in bed in children's pajamas, at home.", Life magazine, 1971, (Photographer: Ralph Crane).
  3. ^ "Model clad in lounging pyjamas featuring peg-top trousers like jodpurs for sale at Neiman Marcus" Life magazine, 1939, (Photographer: Alfred Eisenstaedt)
  4. ^ "Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos playing native Brazilian folk instrument from his collection, while wearing jacket over his pajamas & smoking cigarette; at home." Life magazine, 1945 (Photographer: Unknown; Location: Rio De Janeiro)
  5. ^ Dictionary Meaning: Pajama; TheFreeDictionary; Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Encyclopedia
  6. ^ "Girl sitting on bed and wearing striped flannel pajamas and Donald Duck slippers." Life magazine, December 1949, (Photographer: Nina Leen).
  7. ^ "Millionaire Charles Ponzi posing for photograph in pajamas." Life magazine, 1942, (Photographer: Hart Preston).
  8. ^ "Three college students wearing their PJs and playing in the bunk bed of their dorm room during rush week at the University of Illinois." Life magazine, September 1956 (Photographer: Grey Villet).
  9. ^ "Model wearing cotton-crepe pajamas." Life magazine, 1939, (Photographer: Alfred Eisenstaedt).
  10. ^ "Harriet Traynham (R) and her guests still wearing their pajamas at 3:15 pm," Life magazine, August 1951 (Phtographer: Lisa Larsen)
  11. ^ "Actress Dorothy McGuire doing morning exercises wearing silk pyjamas." Life magazine, 1941, (Photographer: Alfred Eisenstaedt)
  12. ^ "Cynthia Brooks standing with her mother who is making alterations on her 'baby doll' pajamas." Life magazine, March 1957, (Photographer: Peter Stackpole).
  13. ^ "Czech model posing in hostess pajamas." Life magazine, 19]9-;liop[-;pi[l;op68, (Photographer: Bill Ray)
  14. ^ ""The Pyjama Girls"". Irishtimes.com. 2010-08-08. Retrieved 2013-01-23.
  15. ^ The Pajama Game Closes in Shanghai, The New York Times, 5/14/10
  16. ^ "Tesco ban on shoppers in pyjamas". BBC News. 2010-01-28. Retrieved 2013-01-23.
  17. ^ "Meanwhile, In Blanchardstown". Broadsheet.ie. 2012-01-24. Retrieved 2013-01-23.
  18. ^ Lewis, Ivor. 1991. Sahibs, Nabobs and Boxwallahs: A Dictionary of Words of Anglo-India. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 266 pages. ISBN 0-19-564223-6.
  19. ^ Yule, Henry and A.C. Burnell. 1903. Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive. London: John Murray. 1021 pages.
  20. ^ According to Hobson-Jobson, "The insect (Termes bellicosus of naturalists) not properly an ant, of whose destructive powers there are in India so many disagreeable experiences, and so many marvellous stories."
  21. ^ Yule, Henry and A.C. Burnell. Pyjammas, p748.
  22. ^ pajamas. (2006). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved December 29, 2006, from: Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
  23. ^ "Louisiana Official Moves to Ban Wearing Pajamas in Public" Courtney Subramanian. Retrieved April 15, 2012
  24. ^ "Pajamas in Public a Real Crime? | NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth". Nbcdfw.com. 2012-01-17. Retrieved 2013-01-23.
  25. ^ "Vt. high school dress code now bans pajamas" Retrieved on April 15, 2012
  26. ^ Montgomery, Lucy Maud; Lefebvre, Benjamin (editor) (30 March 2009 (original 1931)). A Tangled Web. Dundurn Press Ltd. pp. 120 (chapter 2, "Wheels within wheels"). ISBN 978-1-55488-403-2. Retrieved 26 August 2011. {{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  27. ^ Three Political Web Logs Make a Run for the Mainstream, Roderick Boyd, The New York Sun, May 3, 2005. Accessdate: April 16, 2008.
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