Tights

How to spell tights

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce tights

What does tights mean?

1. nounA close-fitting stretch garment covering the legs, hips, and feet, usually worn under skirts or for sport.

Tights in a sentence

• She packed a thick pair of woollen tights for the cold journey north.

• The dancer pulled on black tights before the rehearsal began.

Where does tights come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This word is simply the plural of 'tight', which English took from the Old Norse word þéttr, meaning 'dense', 'solid', or 'watertight'. Norse settlers brought the word into northern England, and by the medieval period it had displaced the older native form, settling into the spelling we know today. The 'gh' in the middle is a fossil of an old guttural sound, once pronounced at the back of the throat, that English speakers stopped voicing centuries ago, leaving the silent cluster behind. As a garment name, 'tights' arose in the nineteenth century, first describing the close-fitting hose worn by acrobats, dancers, and stage performers, and only later the everyday legwear. The plural form survives because the garment, like trousers, was thought of as a pair covering two legs, which is why we still say a pair of tights rather than a single tight.

How the word is built

• tight (close-fitting, from Old Norse þéttr)
• -s (plural noun ending)