Robin:
Thanks for this.
<snip>
The first OED2(3) citation is from 1902, pre-WW1:
[...]
1902 H. Baumann Londinismen (ed. 2) 211/2 Skivey, ... slav(e)y.
<snip>
Yes. A reference to Baumann's dictionary is impeccable. So bang goes that.
Curiously, my (1933) OED gives the *Glasgow Herald* (1922) as the first
recorded use; an error which is repeated (sans citation) in my 1969 SOED.
But I disagree with the derivation < slavey (used by Thackeray, among
others; and by the *Herald*, alongside skivvy). Partridge (HS) and Onions
also give this explanation, which still seems much too patly philological.
What about < Skibbereen, whence skivvies may have come?
As to Partridge's 'conceptual pun' (it's in his D of the Underworld), I got
that back-to-front. Thus under*things* from under*lings*, which makes it
much less likely: English is happy to call people after clothing (bits of
skirt, stuffed shirts, suits, cloth caps and so forth) but not, I think,
vice versa; brand names excepted.
<snip>
In terms of the poem [...] "skivvy" isn't an appropriate term for the
speaker -- she's a lady's maid, quite a bit above a skivvy in the hierarchy
of Edwardian servants.
<snip>
Yes. Agreed.
CW
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