pedal pushers

See also: pedal-pushers

English

WOTD – 3 June 2023

Etymology

A woman wearing pedal pushers.

From pedal pusher (“cyclist”) +‎ -s (suffix forming pluralia tantum and regular plurals of nouns), as they were originally worn by cyclists.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɛdl̩ ˌpʊʃəz/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɛdəl ˌpʊʃɚz/
• Hyphenation: ped‧al push‧ers

Noun

pedal pushers pl (plural only)

1. (originally US) Women's casual trousers, usually fairly form-fitting, that end at the calves. [from mid 20th c.]

   Coordinate terms: capri pants, clamdiggers

   • 1948 August, Aldous Huxley, “The Script”, in Ape and Essence, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 96:

     Medium close shot of a tall slender girl of fifteen with the face of a Nordic madonna. no, proclaims the apron attached to the waistband of her ragged pedal pushers; no, no, the patches over her budding breasts.

   • 1987, Tim O’Brien, “Speaking of Courage”, in The Things They Carried […], Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin/Seymour Lawrence, published 1990, →ISBN, page 127:

     He drove beneath a canopy of elms, then along a stretch of open shore, then past the municipal docks, where a woman in pedal pushers stood casting for bullheads.

   • 2010 September 5, Charles McGrath, “Single, and singular, women become her”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-11-10:

     Tall and handsome, Ms. [Cherry] Jones, 53, was wearing pedal pushers and a gray T-shirt but had kept on her high-buttoned Mrs. Warren boots. Her manner was not unlike her outfit: forthright, unaffected, a little playful.

   • 2021 September 16, Charles Harbison, “Always the Gold Sandal”, in The Atlantic‎^[2], Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 April 2023:

     I will always remember the floral broadcloth blouse, pedal pushers, sun hat, and cotton sneakers she wore while picking strawberries.

Alternative forms

• pedal-pushers

Derived terms

• pedal-pusher (attributive form)

Translations

women’s casual trousers, usually fairly form-fitting, that end at the calves

• Afrikaans: trapperbroek
• Arabic: ضاغط قدمي
• Finnish: pohjehousut pl
• French: legging (fr) m, pantacourt (fr) m
• Galician: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: halásznadrág (hu)
• Macedonian: бицикли́стички pl (biciklístički)
• Polish: rybaczki (pl) nvir

Noun

pedal pushers

1. plural of pedal pusher

Further reading

• pedal pushers on Wikipedia.Wikipedia