Dear Word Detective: My husband is a big fan of thermal underwear — he wears them all winter long and is not happy if he doesn’t get him for his birthday. The other day he asked me where the term “long johns” came from. I have looked everywhere and even though you may think it is silly, this is not a joke, this is a real question. — Zhanna.
Hey, it’s not only not a joke, it’s a good question. And you’re talking to a long-time long johns fan, ever since I spent a winter working outdoors on a loading dock in Central Ohio. As a matter of fact, I received two pairs of thermal underwear for Christmas this year — not exactly the pony I had asked for, but much more useful than a necktie.
For those readers living in the tropics, “long johns” are ankle-length fitted drawers, usually paired with a long-sleeved top, worn as underwear during cold weather. While the “union suit” (one-piece, or “unified,” long underwear) went out of fashion for everyday wear in the 1930s, its heavier cold-weather “thermal” cousin remains popular today, known by a number of names in various geographic regions of the US, including “long-handles” or “long-handled underwear,” “handlebars,” “long jeans,” “longies,” and simply “long drawers.”
The most common name remains “long johns,” however, which brings us to your question. The term seems to have arisen during World War II, when long underwear was issued to American soldiers, but who, if anyone, the “john” might have been remains a mystery. However, Michael Quinion of the excellent World Wide Words website (www.worldwidewords.org) has uncovered a citation from a 1944 Wisconsin newspaper describing new Army recruits reacting to their first encounter with “long johns” (”After a soldier finally gets into his Long Johns, he invariably swells his chest, flexes his biceps and struts around the barracks like a John L. Sullivan, after whom these practical if not sightly garments have been named.”). Sullivan, of course, was boxing’s first World Heavyweight Champion in the 1880s, and, more importantly, boxed in pantaloons that strongly resembled the lower half of “long johns.” Given Sullivan’s enduring fame, it’s entirely possible that his unorthodox boxing attire (a photograph of which can been seen at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L_Sullivan) tied his name to long underwear.
