trollies for knickers

[fred]

Latest Kate Atkinson set in London post first world war mentions knickers as beingcalled trollies. I'm baffled by this. Cant see the connection. Anyone any ideas?

[ARW]

It's a word I have heard in South and West Yorkshire. Probably more to mean underpants than knickers up here.

[Colin Bignell]

Possibly a derivation of Cockney rhyming slang for trousers or breeches. Trousers = bags = trolley wags = trolley.

Thought to have originated with costermongers to whom trolley wag may have meant something in relation to the carts, or trolleys, they used.

[Robin]

The OED has it with that meaning in dialect and schoolgirl slang.

Possibly from trolly lace but also possibly from "trolley wags" (for "bags" - ie trousers).

[JNugent]

Wasn't it used in that 1980s TV ad for Boddington's?

[JNugent]

See:

[Cursitor Doom]

I'm still not sure. I used the phrase, "Get yer trollies off" as a pick up line to birds I fancied back in the day. Never worked though.

[Kron]

And still doesnt for you, that's why you had to head off to the IoM and f*ck the sheep..

[SteveW]

I've certainly heard it used in Manchester.

[Brian Gaff]

Maybe the definition of a trolley has changed over the years like many have. Back in the old days in the USA a trolley was like a cable car system where the movement was via an under the road wire that trolleys clamped to to gain traction Before supermarkets, trolleys could be what you used to move suitcases around and so it goes. Brian

[fred]

Thanks to all for the elucidation, especially the link to the Bodingtons ad

[Rod Speed]

Nope, we have always had shopping trolleys even before supermarkets.

That was just one use of that word.

And when going to the local corner shop run by Maggie Thatcher's parents.

[Max Demian]

I think those were (and are) called cable cars. Trolley cars (or trolleys) are what Americans call trams, running on rails and with trolley bars picking up power from overhead lines. Americans use the word tram to refer to cable cars suspended from overhead wires.

[Bob Eager]

When I was growing up, trolleys were trolley *buses*. They superseded what my mum called trams.

[billy bookcase]

Mel(anie) Sykes referred to "trollies" in one of her Boddingtons (Cream of Manchester) beer ads which first appeared on national TV in er, 1997.

bb

[wrights...]

Normally round here we used, "Drop yer drawers, it's Santa Claus." Bill

[JNugent]

You are welcome.

[David]

In t'North trollies and keks were slang for trousers.

No idea why.

Cheers

Dave R

[NY]

In S/W Yorkshire, "kecks" (occasionally "kegs") is the more common term for underpants. As in "he were that frightened he kacked his kecks".

[JNugent]

In Liverpool schools, 60+ years ago, "kecks" was the normal term for trousers. I don't remember any slang word for underpants.