stock

Old English stocc meant a trunk, a stump, a post. From this came stock in the sense of a covering for the leg — the 'trunk' of the body. The stocks, the punishment device that locked criminals' legs in a wooden frame, came from the same word. The stocking — with the diminutive -ing suffix — was the garment that covered the leg like bark covers a tree trunk. The analogy was direct: the leg was a trunk, the covering was its bark.

Before the sixteenth century, leg coverings were called hose. The word stocking appeared around 1580 to distinguish the new, closely-fitted knitted leg garment from the older, looser hose. William Lee invented the stocking frame — a knitting machine — in 1589. Elizabeth I reportedly refused to patent it, fearing it would put hand-knitters out of work. The machine eventually spread anyway. Machine-knit stockings were smoother, thinner, and more uniform than hand-knit ones.

Stockings were unisex for centuries. Men wore silk stockings in the eighteenth century — George Washington's were famously well-fitted. The gendering of stockings happened in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as men's trousers lengthened and covered the leg fully, making stockings invisible. Women's hemlines rose, making stockings visible. By 1920, stockings were coded feminine. By 1960, they were exclusively so.

Nylon stockings, introduced by DuPont in 1939, changed the industry overnight. The first day of sale — May 15, 1940 — saw 72,000 pairs sold in New York City. During World War II, nylon was diverted to military use, and women drew seam lines on their bare legs to simulate stockings. Pantyhose, introduced in the 1960s, eventually replaced stockings for most women. The word stocking now belongs to Christmas (the hung stocking) more than to daily fashion.