ˈbobby sock orig. U.S.
[Etym. uncertain, but cf. bob v.5 to cut short.]
(Usu. in pl., bobby socks, sox), socks reaching just above the ankle, esp. those worn by girls in their teens; also attrib. Hence ˈbobby-socker, (more commonly) -soxer, an adolescent girl, esp. one in her early teens, wearing bobby socks.
| 1943 Time 5 July 26/1 Hundreds of..girls in bobby socks sat transfixed. 1944 Newsweek 6 Mar. 88 In New York City last week, the ‘Bobby-sox Brigade’ had swelled to such alarming proportions..that police imposed an unofficial curfew. 1944 Birmingham (U.S.) News-Age-Herald 19 Nov. 11 A/4 About 6,000 bobby soxers attended the concert. 1944 Life 27 Nov. 76/2 When bobby-socker squeals, sound is carried to loudspeaker. 1945 S. Lewis C. Timberlane (1946) xlvii. 333 Small white wool socks, ‘bobby socks’ they were called, to be worn with bare legs that were made-up to look tanned. 1945 This Week (U.S.) 15 Apr. 21/2 Comments on teen-age bobby-sock girls afflicted with dementia-Sinatra. 1946 Jazz Writings 22/1 George Webb's Dixielanders..had the satisfaction of laying a mainly bobby-sox audience flat in the aisles. 1948 Observer 8 Feb. 3/2 His air of smiling tolerance could deceive none but a bobby-soxer. 1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 10 Oct. 573/2 The recent spate of elopement scandals and bobby-sox novelists. |