Sock

HISTORY

The earliest known leg and foot coverings were not knitted. In the 8th century BC, the ancient Greek poet Hesiod used the term piloi, probably referring to matted animal hair worn as a lining inside shoes.

The oldest known socks were found in Egypt and date back to between the years 250 and 420. They were knitted socks that were worn by a Coptic Christian and were excavated from the city of Oxyrhynchus on the River Nile. The split toes were designed for use with sandals. They on display today in London's Victoria and Albert museum.

The earliest known surviving pair of socks, found in Egypt. By David Jackson, 

By 1000 AD, socks had become a symbol of wealth among the nobility and in Medieval England you weren't allowed to stand near the King or Queen without socks on.

The word sock came into Old English from the Latin soccus, a loose-fitting shoe or slipper. The modern meaning arrived around 1400.

An ornamental pattern in silk thread on the side of a sock or stocking has been called a “clock” since the 16th century.

12th-century cotton sock, found in Egypt

Around 1600, one meaning of the verb “to sock” was “to sew a corpse into a shroud”.

The Merry Wives Of Windsor is the only Shakespeare play that mentions socks. Falstaff says: "By the Lord, a buck-basket! rammed me in with foul shirts and smocks, socks, foul stockings, greasy napkins."

In the early years of the English stage, the standard program presented two plays: a comedy was always followed by a tragedy. For a quick change, the players did not put on different shoes. They merely "pulled up their socks" from ankle to knee length. This told the audience that the stage was now set for something serious. Thus whenever people are asked to take things seriously, they are told to "pull up their socks."

The invention of a knitting machine in 1589 meant that socks could be knitted six times faster than by hand. Nonetheless, for the next two hundred years both hand knitting and machine knitting were used to produce socks, but after 1800, machine knitting became the predominant method.

Footwraps were worn before socks. They were widely available and remained in use in Eastern Europe until the 21st century.

Until 2013, Russian soldiers did not wear socks - they wrapped a piece of cloth around their feet.

The Russian word for ‘sock’ is pronounced ‘no sock’.

Albert Einstein never wore socks. He gave them up as a child, annoyed at the holes made by big toes.

Bobby socks were ankle-length socks commonly worn by teenage girls in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s. 'Bobby' here denotes the length of the socks, as if cut short or 'bobbed.'

Bobby socks By Shaun Dunphy from Lindfield, United Kingdom

FUN SOCK FACTS

The most common place to hide valuables is in the sock drawer; it is also the first place burglars look.

Nearly one third of the world's socks (about 8 billion pairs per year) are made in the district of Datang in Zhuji, China, also sometimes known as "Sock City".

Pixiebay

Socks absorb almost a half liter of sweat a day.

Sources Daily Express, Europress Family Encyclopedia 1999.