Leggings have been at the peak of popularity for several years now, so they can be found in any girl’s wardrobe. But if the sympathy for trousers unites stylists, designers, and fashionistas, then the spelling of their name causes controversy.
Let's figure out together how to correctly name your favorite model.
But let’s start by clarifying exactly what style we mean.
The originality of the model that is being debated
Remember the expression “everything in life repeats itself”? This is exactly what happened with tight trousers - leggings. Having appeared almost three centuries ago, they went out of fashion several times and changed their purpose.
And in the 80s of the twentieth century, leggings migrated from men's wardrobe to women's. Two decades later, they again won the hearts of the fair half of humanity. True, they are now called differently - leggings.
There are a lot on sale options for comfortable and convenient models:
- light summer;
- thick winter ones;
- richly decorated evening.
By the way, it is on this basis - the variety of styles and the possibility of decoration - that leggings are distinguished from leggings.
Although from the point of view of language, tights and leggings are the same thing.
As evidenced by the article from Wikipedia: “Tights or leggings (English) are a type of tight-fitting pants.”
But stylists and fashionistas have their own opinions on this issue. They do not deny their commonality, because both do not restrict movement, they fit the legs almost like tights, but at the same time leave the ankles open. At the same time, fashion draws a clear boundary between them.
- Leggings - This is sportswear made from natural fabrics with the addition of elastic threads, available in men's and women's versions.
- Leggings - exclusively for ladies. They are made from translucent or dense fabrics and even thin leather. It will not be possible to play sports in such trousers, since they have little stretch or have a tightening effect and do not allow the skin to “breathe”.
Undoubtedly, leggings as a piece of clothing, they are a type of leggings.
But unlike them, have several length options:
- shortened models: knee-length – breeches;
- elongated, to the middle of the shin - capris.
Recently, there has been a tendency to differentiate between leggings and depending on material.
- Those that imitate denim, or are made from thin elastic denim, are called “jeggings».
- In a word "treggings» denotes lightweight trousers without pockets or fasteners, tightly fitting the legs and made of leather or latex. By the way, these names came into the language quite recently. Maybe that’s why the question of their correct spelling has not yet arisen (except for disputes between fans of jeggings and leggings)
One model - two name options
How often do you look at labels when purchasing clothes? Imagine that on the same day leggings were purchased in different stores.
Looking at the labels attached to them, you were surprised and wondered: can the type of clothing be spelled differently? Or was there a mistake in some of the names? Let's figure it out together.
How did the spelling “leggings” come about?
Any native Russian speaker will say without hesitation that this is a foreign word. But not even every philologist can answer the question “how to write it correctly.”
Let's look at the origin of the word.
Translated from English leg is a leg from hip to foot, and leggi is long-legged.
“Clothes for legs” came into the Russian language along with a name that in the original language has two letters “g”.
The process of assimilation of words can last for more than one year (a striking example is the story of determining the type of coffee).
Reference. The “leggings” variant is a borrowing in which the English word-formation model has been preserved.
Why did the second “g” disappear from the word “leggings”?
Why did the second “g” disappear from the word “leggings”?To explain the appearance of another variant of the name of trousers, we will have to turn to the transcription.
Reference. In American and British English, both words are pronounced with one "g". Compare: the American version is /ˈlegiŋz/ and the British version is /ˈlɛgiŋz/.
The Russian-language version used this pronunciation as a model, and then, from oral speech, the word passed into writing without doubling.
Therefore, we received two versions of the same word. There are many similar examples. One has only to look closely and we will notice David and Davyd, a mattress and a mattress, a tunnel and a tunnel. But let's get back to our trousers.
How to write correctly?
What did the Internet choose?
Nowadays, the most accessible way to obtain information is through popular Internet resources.
Let’s try typing the query “leggings” into Yandex - the search engine automatically corrects the spelling and removes the “extra” letter “g”!
What spelling does Wikipedia use?
This resource acts as a conciliator between disputing parties. He considers both spellings - with one and two "g" - to be equal.
What do dictionaries offer?
First, let's look at the manuals that first recorded the presence of the term.
Dictionary of foreign words
This is what a dictionary entry looks like in the Dictionary of Foreign Words edited by N. G. Komlev:
LEGGINGS - from English “gaiters, leggings” - ladies’ tight-fitting knitted trousers; Ankle-length tights.
Please note that this author suggests writing a double letter “g”.
Encyclopedia of fashion
The same option is recommended by R. Andreeva in the “Encyclopedia of Fashion”, released in 1997, and the Large Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language, which appeared a year later, edited by S. A. Kuznetsov.
However, the fashion encyclopedia can hardly be considered an authoritative linguistic publication dealing with issues of the origin, existence and spelling of words. This means that it is incorrect to draw linguistic information from it.
In addition, noteworthy is the fact that all publications were published in the last century.
The free encyclopedia Wiktionary defines this spelling as obsolete.
orthographic dictionary
Let's turn to more modern, and most importantly, academic dictionaries of the Russian language. For example, to the spelling dictionary of V.V. Lopatin (2012), which contains standard spellings indicating stress and grammatical information. In it you can find both options, however, with a double “g” it is marked “acceptable”. Please note, this is not the norm!
However, all other dictionaries published in the 21st century, including explanatory ones, universally offer a single option and it is with a soft sound “l”, an emphasis on “e” and one sound “g”, indicated in writing by one letter.
Which option is better to use?
Let's think: we write LEGGINGS, but we still pronounce only one sound. The argument is clearly not in favor of such writing. Another argument has not yet been taken into account by us, but it is also not in favor of absolutely accurate phonetic borrowing. After all, we do not pronounce LEGGINGS as we should, while maintaining the English sound shell.
Let's listen to serious scientists.
They think correct spelling: LEGGINGS. That's right!
But in language, as in life, everything flows and everything changes. We'll see what happens next.
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