[MR] "Smalls"

[Dave Montuori]

Scripsit Julienne:
> From what I understand, the term "smalls" was first coined as meaning 
> children by Anne McCaffrey in her Pern series of books (please correct 
> me if I got the wrong author, it may have been Mercedes Lackey?)

As the article cited notes, the first noted usage of "small" to mean 
"child" in the singular is from 1907:

1907 W. DE MORGAN Alice-for-Short xxx. 300 How much can you remember of 
all that time, Alice? You were only a small, you know.

> It is incorrect for medieval settings, and it makes a LOT of people 
> cringe.

On the other hand, "smalle" would be ABSOLUTELY correct for my persona 
(13th-14th century part-English) to use as a collective noun meaning 
children.

> In the SCA, smalls tend to mean undergarments,

which is decidedly not period -- the OED notes that this usage first 
appears in the 19th century.

I generally don't use the term at all myself; "children" is a period term 
and more easily understood than "smalle", and if I need to talk about 
undergarments (which I occasionally do, being friends with high 
authenticity garb makers) then I use "undergarments", if not a more 
specific term better suited to the actual garment under discussion.

Evan