Thongs—or what’s between your toes
They were cheap, they were easy, they were thongs.
Those lovely thin, rubber-soled, open-toed sandals. Their pungent scent could get your high, or at least leave you with a terrific headache. Thongs were a summer must for this Fresno girl. Twenty-five years later and not much has changed. The California trend of wearing thongs almost year-round isn’t going anywhere. But say the word “thong” and anyone under the age of thirty within earshot will do a double take.
“Gross! They’re called flip-flops!”
Oh really? When exactly did thongs become flip-flops and panties become thongs? Apparently, it was long after the word thong had been imprinted in my brain as referring to open-toed sandals—or the 90s. According to Wikipedia, “in the 1990s, the thong [underwear] began to gain widespread acceptance and popularity in the United States.” Truthfully, I knew thong underwear was gaining in popularity but I never thought they would monopolize a word. I mean, hasn’t anybody ever heard of the term homophone? Or, for you homophobes out there, homonym? Never mind. They both have homo in them.
A little respect
For your information thongs are probably the oldest form of footwear still being worn. Thongs have been around for at least 6,000 years. They have been depicted in ancient Egyptian murals on tombs and temples from about 4,000 B.C. The oldest surviving examples of thongs were made from papyrus leaves circa 1,500 B.C.. If you’re super gung-ho about it, you can even go see them in person—they are on display in the British Museum. Except in name, thongs haven’t changed much since ancient times—when thongs were thongs and panties were panties.
4 Comments to “Thongs—or what’s between your toes”
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Ok, so homophone is a word.
As for thongs, my 78 year old grandmother still refers to the thongs she wears on her feet, which is a bit disturbing. I guess “thong” just has more marketability to the youth than “butt floss.”
Now *that* was gross.
I’m just glad the Thong and Toes discussion did not involve a discussion of Panties and Camels…that could be very nasty.
I still use the term thong to refer to footwear and panties to refer to panties. Can’t we all just wear a thong?
See, Travis, therein lies the problem. We can all wear *a* thong, but we’ll either be walking funny, or we’ll be walking funny.