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Thong (clothing)
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The thong is an undergarment and swimwear, worn by both sexes but more commonly women, in a style characterized by a thin strip of material along the center of the garment’s back designed to sit between the wearer’s buttocks, connected directly to the bottom front of the garment and to both sides of the front at the top via a waistband. Thongs come in a variety of styles depending on the thickness, material, or type of the rear portion of fabric and are available for both men and women throughout the world.
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Encyclopedia
The thong is an undergarment and swimwear, worn by both sexes but more commonly women, in a style characterized by a thin strip of material along the center of the garment’s back designed to sit between the wearer’s buttocks, connected directly to the bottom front of the garment and to both sides of the front at the top via a waistband. Thongs come in a variety of styles depending on the thickness, material, or type of the rear portion of fabric and are available for both men and women throughout the world. It is known as the “tanga” or "fio dental" in Brazil.
History
Thongs were first called V-strings. Thongs are descended from the earliest form of clothing, the loincloth, which were generally a male’s clothing item, the reverse of modern Western culture where the thong has more acceptance among women. It is thought that they were originally developed to hide the male anatomy by primitive peoples. In modern clothing, thongs first became popular as a swimsuit style in Brazil. The origin of the word "thong" is from the Old English thwong, a flexible leather cord.
G-string or thong is probably the earliest form of clothing known to mankind; having originated in the warmer climates of sub-Saharan Africa where clothing was first worn nearly 75,000 years ago. Many tribal peoples, such as some of the Khoisan people of southern Africa, wore thongs for many centuries. Much like the 2000-plus-year-old Japanese fundoshi, these early garments were made with the male genitalia in mind.
The first direct descendant of the loincloth, in the direction of thong, was the jockstrap, created by Chicago sporting goods company Sharp & Smith in 1874. The first historical reference to the thong in post-1900’s is in 1939 New York City when Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia ordered nude dancers to dress more appropriately. Jacques Heim’s and Loius Réard’s original bikini from 1946 — that introduced the term “bikini” — had a culotte with a thong back. Fashion designer Rudi Gernreich was credited with introducing the modern thong in 1974 which grew in popularity in South America, especially in Brazil. In the 1990s, the thong began to gain widespread acceptance and popularity in the United States, amounting for sales of more than $2 billion per year in 2006.
Attitudes to wearing G-strings vary, as is usual with highly revealing clothing. By the late 1980s, the design (for females) had made its way into most of the Western world, thong and G-string underwear became more and more popular through the 1990s due to shows like Baywatch, where numerous females were recorded wearing thong swimsuits. , G-string underwear was one of the fastest-selling styles among women. One advantage attributed to the wearing of G-string underwear is that no visible panty line can be seen even under a thin, light-colored or skin-tight garment. Although the popularity of wearing G-string underwear in America has taken off only in the last decade, in Europe it has been commonplace for many more years.
Design and variety
Types of string thongs (as opposed to regular thongs)| Back | Sides | | Strap | Tie | Strapless | | T-back | | | | | G-string | | | | | V-string | | | | | C-string | | | |
Types of thongs include the traditional thong, the G-string, V-string, T-back and the C-string. In Australia the terms G-string and thong are both used, but the term thong usually refers to a kind of rubber footwear. Many languages borrow the English word string to refer to this kind of underwear, usually without the G. Another common name is tanga. A frequent metaphor, especially in South America, is dental floss as in Spanish hilo dental or Portuguese fio dental. A Puerto-Rican Spanish slang term, used by Reggaeton artists, is gistro. Sometimes the bareness of the buttocks is emphasized as in Spanish colaless, sometimes the T-like shape of the back. In Lithuanian it is "siaurikes" ("narrows"), Italian "perizoma", in Turkish "ipli külot" ("stringed underpants"), and in Bulgarian as "prashka" (slingshot). In Israel the thong, mostly the G-string, is called "Khutini" , from the word Khut, which means String. Similarly, in Iran, it is called "Shortbandi" in which "short" (from English: Shorts) means "briefs" and "bandi" means "with a string".
There are a number of intermediate kinds of thongs between full rear coverage and a string rear. Like the Thong, the G-string is essentially a bottom covering that covers the pubis and leaves the buttocks bared; The term G-string is generally used when the vertical strap in the rear of a G-string is no wider than a string. Other similar styles include the Brazilian, rio, and T-back (T-string). The naming of the intermediate styles of thong is debatable, different vendors use the words somewhat interchangeably. There are many styles available:
- Traditional thong: This style is generally the most common and involves a strip of fabric in varying widths on the rear of the garment connecting the front or pouch to the waistband.
- G-string: This style consists of a string of fabric - as opposed to a wider-than-thick strip - connecting the front/pouch and the waistband in the rear. It is also called a Rio thong. Since the mid 1920s female strippers and erotic dancers in the west have been referring to the style of thongs they wore for their performances as G-strings. In Israel the G-string is called khutini , from the word Khut, which means String. In Lithuanian it is siaurikes ("narrows"), Italian perizoma, in Turkish ipli külot ("stringed underpants"), and in Bulgarian it is known as prashka ("slingshot"). A frequent metaphor, especially in South America, is dental floss as in Spanish hilo dental or Portuguese fio dental. A Puerto-Rican Spanish slang term, used by Reggaeton artists, is gistro.
- V-string: Similar to the G-string, this style connects via a single string along the rear that separates into two strings just at or before the waistband or into a small triangle of fabric above the buttocks but below the waistband can have tie sides like the T-back.
- T-back: A thong that makes a straight line of a strip of garment in the back like the letter "T". The sound has been causing some confusion among Japanese speakers with a tea bag, which is also common in today’s Japanese dictionaries. In the dialects of Chinese language, the G-string is commonly called dingziku (???/???) which literally means "? character pants" (or roughly, "T-letter pants"). In Korean it is called ??? ("T panty"). However, there are several usages of the term T-back in English as well (e.g. Children’s literature author E.L. Konigsburg’s T-backs, T-shirts, Coat and Suit).
- C-string; as narrow as a G-string but without the band around the waist, leaving just a "C" shaped piece between the legs held in place firmly by a flexible internal frame. Since there is no material around the waist, the C-string completely eliminates the panty lines which thongs and other underwear create. C-strings are also designed for use as beachwear, which reduces the tan lines that would have been left by the side straps of even a G-string.
- Dance belt: This is a type of thong designed specifically to be used in the same manner as an athletic supporter for male dancers, especially in ballet. Its purpose is to protect and support the male during athletic/dance activities without being seen through outergarments such as tights or a leotard.
- Cheeky: This style covers a little more area, but exposes the bottom part of the buttocks. Some cheekies are used as undergarments while others function as bikini bottoms.
- String Tanga: This is a type of tanga swimwear which has the waist band replaced with strings which are tied.
Thongs are available in a wide variety of materials, including fleece, silk, cotton, satin, nylon, lycra/spandex, and latex and are also available in maternity styles.
Men’s thongs
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